TV Reviews : Blame It on MTV’s ‘Rock in Rio’ Festival

The “Rock in Rio II” festival, held in a Rio de Janeiro stadium last month over a 10-day period, was more a nightmarish than a celebrative affair for many attendees, marked not just by claustrophobia but also rampant crime and even death. As MTV’s “Rock in Rio Concert Special” (premiering tonight at 7) makes clear, however, it was no Altamont.

Of all the acts represented in this 3-hour collection of concert highlights, California’s own Faith No More comes the closest to representing an on-the-edge, Stones-like power and foreboding, scary and rivetingly musical all at once. No sooner has the band’s last note sounded, though, than sinfully cheerful veejay Martha Quinn is back, promising: “Minute by minute, we are getting closer and closer to Jonathan, Jordan, Joey, Donnie, Danny!”

And when the New Kids on the Block (introduced with no little patronization by co-host Kurt Loder as “the sound of young America”) do appear after that commercial break, there’s no doubt they’re not lip-syncing--the harmonies are way off-pitch. Nice choreography, though, with increasingly hip-thrusting Donnie Wahlberg continuing to cultivate that teen-scum look, like a Tiger Beat Mickey Rourke.

George Michael, for his part, is cultivating a Roman emperor look with his short new ‘do, and provides the most honest crooning of the show, along with the unpretentious dance diva Lisa Stansfield.

Low points include self-consciously buffoonish Billy Idol using a cane as a phallic prop (not to mention the “flesh for fantasy” of his hot pants-clad backup singers), and Information Society offering feckless techno-pop with funny haircuts and drum pads at least a decade too late (but not too late for 80,000 arm-thrusting Rio kids).

The sound mix in this hastily prepared assemblage of fresh footage is generally superb, but the camera coverage inside the stadium is merely adequate at best: Faith No More singer Mike Patton rolls off the edge of the stage at the climax of “Epic,” and the cameras aren’t there to catch him.

The show also includes Run DMC, Dee-Lite, INXS and Queensryche, as well as Guns N’ Roses, whose climactic segment was unavailable for preview.