Live review: The Jonas Brothers at Staples Center

The boy band delivers to the shrieking masses in a flashy and entertaining show at Staples Center. Popularity problems? Not here.

The Jonas Brothers -- and everyone they employ -- can rest easy: Recent rumors regarding the death of Jonasmania have been greatly exaggerated.

On Friday night at Staples Center, in the first of three weekend shows there, the Jonases demonstrated that when it comes to America's boy bands, nobody inspires more devotion, triggers more flashbulbs or elicits more ear-destroying shrieks. (Trust me -- I'm still recovering.)

It's been a year of chattering-class speculation for Kevin, Joe and Nick, whose once-mighty commercial prowess has taken some dents of late. First, their hugely hyped 3-D concert film opened in February to less-than-spectacular numbers. Then, in June, their fourth studio album, "Lines, Vines and Trying Times," notched first-week sales that were about half of those for 2008's "A Little Bit Longer."

Of course, as Nick pointed out at Staples during a rambling monologue about how he hasn't let diabetes slow him down, "Vines" still delivered the band's second No. 1 debut in less than a year. In the last two months, Nick added, they'd also met President Obama and appeared for the second time on the cover of Rolling Stone.

Nick's rundown of the band's recent accomplishments was the only sign Friday that the Jonas Brothers have taken up a defensive position. ("I encourage you all to press on during hard times," he offered presidentially.) The rest of the band's 100-minute set felt like an exercise of power long entrenched.

Spread over three interconnected stages spanning the length of the venue's floor, the production flexed all manner of arena-show flash: For a folky reading of "Gotta Find You," from last year's hit movie musical "Camp Rock," the brothers and two violinists rode a hydraulic platform several stories into the air. During "Lovebug," a simulated rain shower spelled out the song's lyrics in water. Near the end of a medley of tunes from "JONAS," the band's new Disney Channel series, Joe and Kevin sprayed one section of the audience with high-powered foam guns from atop a sort of revolving cherry picker.

It was almost enough to entertain the thousands of dads waiting to lead their families in a pre-encore parking-lot dash.

As on the Jonas Brothers' records, the music hopscotched across genres, moving through Coldplay-style piano balladry ("Fly With Me"), blue-eyed funk-rock ("World War III") and fuzz-guitar power pop ("SOS") with the help of a 10-piece band that provided as much instrumental detail as it did crowd-battling volume.

Though older Jonas hits such as "Year 3000" and "That's Just the Way We Roll" drew huge cheers, they sounded surprisingly lightweight compared to more recent material, such as "Burnin' Up" and "Much Better," both of which draw unlikely inspiration from the likes of Huey Lewis and Hall & Oates. At one point, the Jonases played a rousing rendition of Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" that seemed to reveal the vision of pop profundity that dances in these young songwriters' heads.

Near the end of the show, "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks (who performed a competent but somewhat perfunctory five-song set before the Jonases took the stage) joined the brothers for an appealingly bombastic version of her current hit, "Battlefield," complete with an intro of military drums.

Though the headliners probably didn't intend it, there seemed to be some kind of message buried in that song's love-as-war metaphor: We may have experienced some losses, the Jonas Brothers were admitting, but our victory is assured.

--Mikael Wood

Photo credit: Ken Hively / L.A. Times 

Comments

[Saying...]

Awesome review! I truly love watching every member of that band perform (including the 10 piece backers) - all three brothers are such great entertainers, but Joe blew me away this year...marvelous, and better all the time.

[cadence]

I have been a jonas brothers fan since their first single "mandy." I love them with all my heart and what I saw today on Youtube BROUGHT ME TO TEARS! I never cried so hard in my life. Its this video called Pray For Jonas. I watched it because I thought they were going to be nice to the Jonas Brothers, but it was the complete opposite. They beat up this poor young man who had a jonas brothers poster and then they made him BURN IT! It was so sad. Please we have to stop this, we have to make youtube take it down. THIS IS HORRIBLE! Here is a link, if you watch it you will understand how horrible this is and together we can stop it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eszk0NyguM

[barbie]

I THINK JOE JONAS IS FUNNY GUY TO ME?

[JEANETTE VASQUEZ]

I was at the Jonas Brothers concert Sunday night @ the Staples Center in
attendance with my husband and two young girls. I think these young men
put on an amazing show. My girls were in shock, in heaven, in complete
awe and I
enjoyed it myself! I think your review sums up the concert rather
accurately except I have to strongly disagree with your choice of words
in calling Nicks inspiring message a "rambling monologue". It's
insulting. I found it rather touching that he would take a moment
to encourage and inspire all the young hearts hanging onto his every
word when you and I both know all he had to do was come out and stand
there and the screaming girls would have been satisfied. He basically
told them
not to let the curve balls in life slow them down, ever. We live in
crazy
times and I find it quite refreshing that someone with the influence
that he has on so many young people would be so positive and
inspiring. A message to not give up or throw in the towel is not only
very much needed, but very much appreciated. It's easy to be like
everyone else in a world where anything goes. In these days and times
it takes courage to make a stand and have morals and values like these
young men do. I think they deserve all the fans they have. It was a
great show.

[Paul Harris]

I took my 10-year-old daughter and wife to the Jonas Brothers concert in Tampa tonight. I had read this review earlier today, and needed to come back and comment.

Like Jeanette V., I found Nick's talk both inspirational and a highlight of the evening. There are far to few positive messages for our youth in today's mainstream media. For a group this talented and firmly rooted to devote time during their concerts to emphasize the power of positive thought just confirms that they are the real deal.

"A rambling monologue," Ken Hively? Maybe the LA show you attended varied from what I heard tonight. Or, maybe not.