Shortly after announcing their reunion, the band announced their tour was stopping in Phoenix at Talking Stick Resort Arena. My friends texted me the ticket prices and asked what seats we should get in the arena.
While waiting in a virtual line of nearly 2,000 people to buy our tickets, it hit me that I not only needed to break out the purity necklace and Lip Smackers lip balm, but I had to become a Jonas Brothers fan again.
I had never been to a Jonas Brothers concert before "Sucker" came out (or any Disney star concert for that matter), so buying a ticket for this innocent punk boy band felt surreal.
Everyone who bought a ticket received a complimentary copy of their latest album, Happiness Begins. After slipping the CD into my car player, I was greeted with a very different sound than what I’d grown up with. Instead of the Disney punk rock that we loved in the 2000s, their songs sound more mature.
Their lyrics transitioned from singing about their high school crush to finding their happy place again. The new songs may have a new pop sound, but I can still feel that same boy-band charm cherished as kids. The music videos still have their goofy charm, but now they have more facial hair.
The trio
Sure, if “Year 3000” or “S.O.S” came on while listening to Radio Disney or in between dodgeball games in gym class, I sang and danced with all the other girls. They knew the words and I knew how to dance … sort of.
While the other girls were fawning over Joe Jonas’s long skater boy hair in Camp Rock, I had my head buried in a Judy Blume book while listening to Gwen Stafani ... and secretly admiring Nick’s thick, curly hair.
Listening back to those early albums is like slipping back into my tattered yellow Converse sneakers with my Lisa Frank school supplies in hand. Knowing my music tastes now, it makes me wonder why I didn’t listen to them sooner.
Joe’s vocals blend with Kevin’s guitar, while Nick molds the two together with his backup vocals and guitar. With their tight pants, long dark hair, and grungy sound, the Jonas Brothers were the All American Rejects of Disney’s music scene.
When they split up in 2013, I was about to be a freshman at a Texas high school and my days of living a 2000s Disney life were long over. But part of me was sad that the only boy band I listened to was no longer a band. It felt like the final confirmation that my childhood was coming to an end.
After they split, the Jonas Brothers quickly became a throwback. Their music never quite left the playlists of school events and parties. Sleepovers became one large nostalgic trip the second when someone asked, “Remember when we had this?”
While my playlist consisted of mostly Hillary Duff, Selena Gomez, and High School Musical, I could at least scream the lyrics to “Year 3000” without revealing to everyone I was not a die-hard Jonas Brothers fan, which was a sin among the other girls in my school.
But that’s where the world (mostly millennials) was.
We were living our lives with the new music acts coming in and appreciating the Disney music era that was coming to a close. And now that they’re back together, we get to continue to glaze over their thick dark hair and brotherly charm as if they never left.
I didn’t get to go to these concerts as a kid, but now that I’m an adult and I have my ticket for the reunited Jonas Brothers, it’s like I’m finally making my younger self’s preteen dreams come true.
At their concert on October 5, I’ll be lost in a crowd of awakened Jonatics getting down to “Rollercoaster” with the same moves I had when I was 8 years old jamming to “Paranoid.”
The Jonas Brothers are scheduled to perform Saturday, October 5, at Talking Stick Resort Arena. Tickets are $60.20 to $495.20 via Ticketmaster.
