#jonas 20

I've come to the realization... I am a Nick girl. With Joe & Kevin tendencies. It was firmly sealed tonight.

I live in Buffalo, and went to go see the Jonas Brothers tonight in concert. I bought the tickets back in, like, March or April. The All-American Rejects were opening for them and I’ve wanted to see them since 2004. I saw the Jonas Brothers back in 2023 and it was such a fun concert, so bonus for the opener. Then we started seeing all of the amazing guest stars they’ve been bringing out on stage! Demi Lovato, Switchfoot, Hanson, Hoobastank, JoJo, so many amazing early 2000s musicians! I had half a mind they’d bring out the local Goo Goo Dolls and wasn’t thrilled about that prospect, but we’d have to wait and see.

I bought two tickets without (my fault) not talking to my concert-going friend about prices, I had a few months of uncertainty about who would be going with me, but my cousin’s wife graciously accepted an invite. Then I signed up for a two week work trip without checking my calendar and was supposed to leave the day before the concert. I pulled some strings, cashed in some favors, and was able to leave the morning after the concert.

Cut to today. My cousin’s wife texts me about some very personal family drama and has to bow out. She offered her ticket to her friend, who I don’t dislike, but she wouldn’t have been my first choice. Then it dumped like a foot of wet heavy snow today. First snow of the season. But alas, we make it to the arena and get there about 15 minutes before the show is supposed to start, according to the timetable for the show the day prior.

We’re sitting there, waiting, waiting, waiting. Finally, the DJ comes on about a half hour late. It’s nothing special. In fact, he sucked. I pulled out my phone and wanted to see what people on Twitter were saying about him, and the first tweet I see says “if [insert DJ’s name here] has a longer set, does that mean Franklin has a longer set too?” And I’m wondering why would either of them? This show is already a half hour late.

Then I just had this feeling, I had to search Twitter for the All-American Rejects. The first thing that pops up? They just quit the rest of the tour. Today. The lead singer damaged his vocal cords the night before and has to be on major vocal rest. Which would explain why when we looked up AAR’s setlist for the night prior, it was only 3 songs long.

To say I was livid was an understatement. Obviously I’m not mad at AAR and their reason for canceling. Just the situation in general. I was so very looking forward to seeing them. They’re maybe 65-70% of the reason why I specifically came to this show.

Then the “bonus Jonas” Franklin came out and did a 25 minute set (so he says was expanded from his usual 15). Lucky for us! There was only one song that sounded good, Oasis, and the rest sounded very…bible-y/preachy. Not my jam.

Then there’s a few minutes of down time. For shits and giggles, I looked up to see if the show was sold out. It wasn’t. The same seat that I paid $225 for, one section closer to the stage, was selling for $75. Not resale. Straight from Ticketmaster. Again, livid.

It’s about 8:30, the time the JoBros are supposed to come out. But then their music director comes out and announces that tonight’s show is being live-streamed, so there’s multiple delays while they make sure everything is good to go.

Franklin comes out again and sings another song (seriously?) and then brings out a fan and has her tell us her life story (seriously, gtfo) and THEN, after 9pm, the boys finally come out. They open with a Christmas song I’ve never heard before but every single other person in the audience has, and get into the show.

There were a group of about 11 girls in front of us, and they weren’t annoying, they were actually kind of charming, but the one directly in front of me was nursing a plastic drink cup all night long and holding it straight up the air while she took pictures and recorded videos, so it was right in my line of sight/in front of my phone when I wanted to take something. So I’d hold mine higher. That is until a mom behind me rudely pushed my shoulder and yelled at me to put my phone down.

The surprise guest ended up being some up-and-comer by the stage name “Absolutely” who after I looked her up, is the sister of the British singer Raye. No one knew her. She sang a song of hers and then a song with the brothers. That was another letdown, I’m sorry to say.

I was able to see Waffle House, some of my favorite tracks from The Album, I was so very proud to see Kevin perform his new solo single, and I made it all the way to Backwards before I had to call it quits about 6 songs early, bought a tour program at the merch table, and bounced. Which I do not regret at all because I skipped out on aaaallllllll the traffic.