CAPSULE REVIEW : New Kids Full of Pop Energy but It Fades, Fades Away

New Kids on the Block operated like a true American industry Wednesday at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa: The kid-pop phenomenon from Boston made plenty of money, but it wasted a great deal of energy.

A considerable resource was on hand waiting to be harnessed--a sold-out house of nearly 19,000 fans, the vast majority of them deeply infatuated girls just tingling with potential energy.

New Kids, the object of one of the most pervasive outbreaks of puppy love in pop history, didn’t have the foggiest notion how to focus that abundance of adoration and make it explode.

Instead of concentrating and multiplying their fans’ hysteria, the five New Kids (who headline Dodger Stadium on Friday) gradually drained it during a plodding, two-hour show that wasted considerable time on disorganized patter and antics. Maybe the group’s members, who range in age from 17 to 21, figured that a tightly organized, quick-paced performance would confirm that they are just pale markings on their producer Maurice Starr’s blueprint for a white Jackson 5. So they decided the way to establish some personality of their own was to hang loose, investing the show with a playground feeling that involved lots of yakking and hollering, not to mention interminable stretching of songs.

But pacing and high energy were New Kids’ only hope. With its repertoire of Starr-written sweet-nothings that skim the surface of teen romance, this bunch certainly wasn’t going to climb any expressive peaks on the strength of its material.

The chief slacker was stubble-faced Donnie Wahlberg, who spent considerable time carving out an oh-so-calculated, bad-boy persona. He quickly went overboard and managed to make himself truly obnoxious.

The New Kids launched most of their best ammunition at the start, with fire-pots flashing, lasers glowing, and all five members engaging in some energetic hoofing. But after a brisk opening 15 minutes or so, the time-killing began with a long, laborious introduction of the group’s five-piece backing band. After that came an extended series of solo and duo turns by all the New Kids except oldest member Jonathan Knight, a serious candidate for the Andrew Ridgeley Award for superfluous presence in a pop act.

If there’s any real promise cocooned in New Kids, it lies with Jordan Knight, the 20-year-old singer who carried most of the show’s musical load. Knight, the handsomest and by far the most talented New Kid, turned in a solid performance that showcased a generally assured falsetto, some limber dance moves and an appealing, earnest personality. Nobody else in the group came close to cutting it vocally.

Danny Wood’s grating, off-key singing was about as bad as it gets on a major stage.

A complete review will appear in Friday’s Times.