Although my days as a One Direction stan (I say that like it’s in my past, funny) were my prime fangirl days, I wouldn’t have been as well-prepared for total boyband obsession if it weren’t for the Jonas Brothers. I was in elementary school, likely between the ages of 7 and 10 when the Jonas Brothers were in their peak. Album after album and countless Disney channel appearances, I was quickly infatuated, especially with Joe. Luckily, I was able to see the loves of my life in both 2008 and 2009 while they were touring. As One Direction rose to fame, the Jonas Brothers took a backseat in my life, but their split in 2013 still took a toll. They were a large part of my childhood, and it’s sad to see things change from the way they were growing up. That all changed earlier this year when the Jonas Brothers announced their reunion.
Fast forward to September 14th, in the very last row of the Enterprise Center, I was seeing the Jonas Brothers for the third time. I honestly had no idea what to expect. Would this tour be focused on their newest album, or pay homage to the old days? Were they approaching this in a way to completely cut ties with their Disney roots and go full-on rockstar? It had been so long since I’ve seen them, I couldn’t even remember what being at a Jonas Brothers concert would be like. Although, the audience was about the demographic I expected: girls between the ages of 18 and 25, who were reliving their childhood like I was.
To put it lightly: I lost my shit. Nick Jonas is a construction cone orange suit was not something I knew I needed in my life until that night. Let me tell you, he went sleeveless after the first costume change and I did know I needed that in my life. They started off with “Rollercoaster”: a banger that fit the carnival theme of the background video. But when I say over half the songs they played were old songs, I’m not exaggerating. Even songs I didn’t know I knew the lyrics to were played, that’s how far they went back. At some point in the show, Joe announced they had over 230 songs in their discography and, while they couldn’t play all of them that night, they had some special things planned. Next came a 6 or 7-minute mashup of many, many throwbacks, which I will definitely need to be released on Spotify ASAP. And yes, I did cry during “When You Look Me In The Eyes”, but I was wearing sunglasses (a whole different story) so no one could tell.
Overall, this concert exceeded everything I wanted it to be and more. It was definitely worth the 4-hour trip home, as well as cramming all of my homework and studies into the week beforehand, leading to some long, long days. I was worried that the crowd would be full of small kids and they would only play songs from their new album. I couldn’t blame them, frankly, since it was a tour promoting that new album. But by appealing to all of the older fans in the crowd with their older songs, the Jonas Brothers still killed it the third time I’ve seen them 10 years later.