Review: Jonas Brothers show St. Paul crowd what sets them apart from brotherly bands

Hard to believe that the Jonas Brothers are celebrating their 20th anniversary.

Boy bands weren’t meant to last. And bands of brothers don’t seem to last without divisive drama. Witness the bickering in Oasis, Kings of Leon, the Black Crowes, the Kinks, Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Everly Brothers, to name a few.

However, the Jonas Brothers have endured, minus a six-year hiatus for solo careers. They toasted their tenure on Friday night at jam-packed Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul with confetti, flames, fireworks, fog blasters, three dozen songs, special guests and a stage set depicting the George Washington Bridge, which goes from New Jersey, the Jo Bros’ home state, to New York City.

It was the kind of concert that was hard not to enjoy, despite a couple of indulgent sections that didn’t destroy the momentum.

Here are six things that set the Jonas Brothers apart from other brotherly bands:

— The Jonas20: Greetings from Your Hometown Tour was so much smarter than the trio’s last one, the Five Albums, One Night Tour that was their 2023 version of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Two years ago at Xcel Energy Center, the Jonas Brothers offered a staggering 62 songs, though more than half of them (unofficially 35) were abbreviated, over the course of three hours.

On Friday, the brothers offered a mere three dozen songs in two hours, more than enough to satisfy the 14,000 fans. And for the record, only 13 numbers were shortened, four in a medley of fan-requested tunes and nine in an overlong “versus” megamix battle between Joe and Nick Jonas.

— The Jonas Brothers sure have a lot of friends in the music business. They’ve been inviting a surprisingly deep array of guests to the stage at each concert on this tour. The list has included Demi Lovato, John Legend, Kelsea Ballerini, Machine Gun Kelly, Hanson, 5 Seconds of Summer, Jason Mraz, Alessia Cara, Plain White T’s, Dashboard Confessional, Russell Dickerson, Jordin Sparks and Natasha Bedingfield.

In St. Paul, the trio was joined by distinguished Twin Cities musicians who aren’t necessarily nationally known. It was mostly the players who accompanied Nick Jonas on his 2010 side project, Nick Jonas & the Administration — namely keyboardist Tommy Barbarella, guitarists Sonny Thompson and Cory Wong, and bassist John Fields, who produced the Jonas Brothers’ second and third albums.

The Administration’s heavier rock sound diverged from the usual pop-rock sound of the Jonas Brothers. However, four songs might have been a bit indulgent, though the funk-rock of “State of Emergency” packed a memorable punch.

And of course there was the Bonus Jonas on Friday: little bro Frankie, 25, doing an unadvertised opening set 15 minutes before official showtime. Now billed as Franklin Jonas & the Byzantines, he created a stir when he scampered through the crowd singing Coldplay’s “Yellow.” Later, Frankie and Kevin Jonas Sr., also known as Dad Jonas, joined the Jo Bros for the night’s finale of “When You Look Me in the Eyes.”

The official opening act was All-American Rejects, the Oklahoma emo rockers who, like the Jo Bros, took a mid-‘10s hiatus, going 13 years between albums. The St. Paul crowd was happy to hear the Rejects for 45 minutes, standing and singing along to old hits like 2005’s “Dirty Little Secret” and “Move Along.”

While they may not seem like best buddies onstage, somehow the combo and the chemistry of the Jo Bros just work.

Moreover, the brothers — Kevin, 37, Joe, 36, and Nick, 33 — are all girl dads, which makes them even more appealing to their fan base, which is mostly women in their 20s, 30s and maybe 40s.

— The Disney empire has launched a long list of female music stars including Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter. The list of successful Disney boys to men is limited, though, to Justin Timberlake and the Jonas Brothers, who have announced a third “Camp Rock” film, the venture that kick-started their career on the Disney Channel.

— Like other veteran boy bands such as New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys, the Jonas Brothers have a devoted following that has stuck with them from their glory days of 2008-13. They are loyal and they were rewarded Friday with such old favorites as “Lovebug” and “Burnin’ Up” (featuring former bodyguard Big Rob’s rap) as well as such comeback triumphs as 2023’s “Waffle House” and 2019’s “Sucker,” the trio’s only No. 1 song that was greeted with screams from some of the younger fans who came on board recently.

Among the night’s loudest ovations were for non-Jonas Brothers hits, namely Nick’s solo R&B jam “Jealous” and the irresistibly dance-happy “Cake by the Ocean” by DNCE, Joe’s side project.