Jonas Brothers sound sharp in tune-up show
Pop act headlines Wild 94.9's Wazzmatazz before heading on tour
The Jonas Brothers have lined up one of the biggest tours of the year, which kicks off next weekend with not one but two massive shows at Yankee Stadium in New York.
The sibling trio — consisting of Joe, Kevin and Nick Jonas — prepped for the big road show by performing a one-off concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View on Friday.
“I will say as an audience, to get us ready to go back on tour, you are perfect,” Kevin Jonas told the approximately 10,000 fans in attendance.
The group was in town to headline Wild 94.9’s Wazzmatazz, which, yes, does indeed sound more like a brand of intensely sugary candy than it does a pop music radio show. (“I want a pack of Sour Patch Kids, some gummy worms and a Wazzmatazz NOW!)
Yet, the Jonas Bros were an incredibly good booking for Wild 94.9, especially giving that the band’s upcoming trek — descriptively, and somewhat annoyingly, titled The Tour — doesn’t include a Bay Area date. Well, at least not yet. The band made a few comments from the stage on Friday suggesting a local show will likely be added soon. (It makes sense that they would hold back on announcing a The Tour gig in the Bay Area until later so as not to hurt ticket sales for Wazzmatazz.)
The brothers — who do have a Sept. 11 show set for Golden 1 Center in Sacramento — kicked off its likeable headlining set on Friday with “Only Human,” one of three tracks performed from their fifth studio album, 2019’s “Happiness Begins.”
They’d quickly continue through “What a Man Gotta Do” and “Cool,” a near-irresistible pop gem — also from “Happiness Begins” — which ranks as the single best song in the Jonas Bros. catalog.
Joe and Nick traded off on lead vocals, while brother Kevin backed them up on the microphone and strummed guitar, as the group continued through such sugary and straight-forward pop tunes as “S.O.S.” and “Waffle House,” the latter of which hails from the group’s recently released “The Album.” (Get it? If you have “The Album” then it should be supported by The Tour, right?)
Backed by a solid sevenpiece band — featuring stellar work from lead guitarist JinJoo Lee — the Jonas Brothers would touch on five of its six studio albums during the course of the night, leaving only “Lines, Vines and Trying Times” out of the mix. That was a surely a disappointing omission for some fans, who would’ve loved to have heard the single “Paranoid” (which, sadly, is not a cover of the Black Sabbath classic).
Joe and Nick also took time to highlight their work outside of the band. The former played a couple of songs from his dance-rock outfit DNCE (which also features guitarist Lee) — the uncomplicated and charming “Toothbrush” and the memorable smash “Cake by the Ocean.” Nick countered with nice versions of the solo numbers “Jealous” and “Levels.”
The group took plenty of time to connect with the crowd, tossing out T-shirts from the stage and, in general, showing lots of gratitude for the support these fans have shown them over the years.
“We are just three kids from New Jersey who somehow figured out how to tour around,” Nick Jonas said.
The Jonas Brothers’ set ran some 80 minutes, a tally that the group will surely blow by — and then some — when it takes on the mighty challenge of performing five albums during each stop of The Tour. (Am I the only one who finds that math on that a little strange? Given that the band has six albums in its discography. Is one album just clearly inferior to the other five?)
Fans can catch the show in Sacramento or wait for a Bay Area date that will likely be announced soon.
Other acts on the Wazzmatazz bill included Kim Petras and Conan Gray.
German dance-pop singer Petras, whose set included a version of the Grammy-winning song “Unholy,” is set to return to the Bay Area for an Oct. 29 concert at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. Visit apeconcerts.com for information.