This was my first time seeing the Jonas Brothers. I truthfully have not heard much of their newer music so I felt like I would feel out of place at one of their concerts in the present. However my interest peaked when they announced the Burnin' Up All Over Again Tour. I had been a big fan of the Jonas Brothers and Camp Rock while in middle school pre-Beatles phase. I would listen to their self-titled album, and "A Little Bit Longer" on the bus on the way to school via my portable CD player. (I also listened to some of Miley Cyrus's (Hannah Montana) stuff, and Taylor Swift's first two albums back then.) (I used to joke that, that was before I had a good taste in music.) (Maybe that is partially true, but all those songs brought comfort to a girl who was just trying to survive middle school.) Their lyrics about young love, and what it's like to be a teenager, and being okay with being different. I am a hopeless romantic at heart, and a lot of those songs lean into that. With every girl there's that one boy band, and for me that was the Jonas Brothers. For others it might be New Kids on the Block, The Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, Hanson, or One Direction. When I think of boy bands I think of boys singing songs together without playing instruments, and relying on autotune. (I don't even know if that's true of any boy bands.) However the Jonas Brothers are talented singers without autotune, and all know how to play instruments. They also have a really good stage presence. (Maybe Joe a little too much :P). What also helped in my decision to finally see them was the fact they had Phantom Planet as one of their guests on their last tour. (For each city they picked a special guest that was one of there musical influences.) They picked Phantom Planet for their Anaheim show and performed Phantom Planet's song "California" with them. Phantom Planet is my current favorite band and aren't too well known anymore so that was really special, and I hope it was able to bring some fans over.
Before the show Mary and I decided to get dinner in Milwaukee beforehand. I had originally wanted to check out Vendetta Coffee (yes a coffee shop at night) again due to it's cool atmosphere but found out they were only open until 4pm on Sundays. They are open to 10pm everyday besides Sunday. When I was googling restaurants nearby that wouldn't be super packed before the concert it came up with the restaurant located by the Harley Davidson museum. We arrived to a very empty parking lot and no one in the restaurant. A sign of the door said they closed at 5pm on Sunday but the door had been unlocked. Google still was adamant it would be open until 8pm. (Why'd they have to choose to play on a Sunday? Jk). We drove over towards the 3rd Ward, and a car pulled out of a parking spot right in the center of the 3rd Ward. We got close parking to the restaurants and shops, and because it was a Sunday it was free parking. BOOM. Side note: It hurt my feelings getting to Milwaukee around 5:30 and it being pitch black, but it was nice seeing the Milwaukee skyline lit up. (One with blue and gold lights). We decided on the restaurant Wicked Hop which Mary had been to before. We both had burgers, and on Sundays they allow unlimited toppings for no extra charge along with happy hour anytime after 4pm. (We did not get any happy hour drinks.) I got Milwaukee root beer, and Mary got cherry coke, and they even added maraschino cherries. Sunday night was also karaoke. The Wicked Hop was really hopping I guess. Mary brought along an extra Jonas Brothers shirt which I put on at the restaurant. I wore a brown leather jacket, the Jonas Brothers shirt (white), and faux leather pants. (I thrifted them and didn't have an occasion to wear them until that night, and they were surprisingly comfortable.) Nick Jonas ended up wearing a brown leather blazer during one part of the show. We totally planned that. Just kidding.
The next part of the night was a little stressful. When I bought the tickets it asked if I also wanted to buy parking. Thinking getting parking in advance would be a good idea I bought it. I assumed that any parking that you would buy with your tickets would be at one of the parking garages right next to Fiserv Forum. It wasn't. I guess I should have looked up the address before purchasing parking, which I usually do. The parking garage I had paid for turned out to be a 16 minute walk from Fiserv. With it being just the two of us we decided not to risk it, and looked up other parking options. I found a parking lot that was closer to the venue, assuming the parking garages right next to Fiserv would probably be full this close to the concert. That specific parking lot was not accessible due to construction so we decided to try our luck and drive to the parking garages next to Fiserv. The first garage was completely full, however the employees outside pointed us in the direction of the other parking garage saying there were still spots left in that one. We got there.....and the sign said $45 parking. It ended up being $48 with taxes, and that killed my soul a little bit. You think the stress would have ended there, but it did not. Finding parking in the parking garage was rough. We finally found a spot, but it was so small that Mary couldn't open her door. (Even though my car is smaller). Luckily we were able to find a section of the smaller parking spots without cars on either side. For context we left Kenosha at around 5 o'clock, and started looking for parking around 7:15 it was around 8:15 by the time we got to our seats. The opener Magnus Ferrel (Will Ferrel's son) performed at 7:30, and the Jonas Brothers went on at 8:30. Magnus probably finished performing at 8pm. Talk about cutting it close. I'm so glad we decided to get to Milwaukee earlier in the evening. I am curious to know how Magnus Ferrel sounded though. For some of their shows they have their youngest brother Franklin opening for them, which I would also be curious to see. The tickets listed two other performers besides the Jonas Brothers so I assumed there would be another opener. (The other performer was Deleasa and he played during intermission.) When the lights went down at 8:30 I thought for sure it was another opener, and not the Jonas Brothers themselves. Even when the entrance was dramatic, and girls were screaming. I did discover it was them seconds later. To add I cannot talk enough about the hidden gem of tickets that I found. I was really skeptical when I bought tickets that were way side stage and rated 9/10 for view. However, you could see them even more clearly than you would have from a section facing the stage head on. We were the closest seated section to the stage for a fraction of the price. You could see them really clearly, and as I found out they could also see us pretty clearly. (I found a video a fan took of Joe performing by our section and you can easily pick out Mary and I, so when they would go and perform to the side of the stage they could definitely see us.) (I was definitely not expecting to be able to be seen in the crowd at all.) When they first came out they were wearing outfits that matched the ones that they wore back around 2008, for Joe that meant wearing a neon yellow shirt. Luckily Kevin and Joe didn't straighten their hair and none of the guys wore skinny jeans. (Different times. ha ha). They played clips from 2008 twice during the show from the original "Burnin' Up" Tour, which made it feel even more nostalgic. We all kind of grew up together even though they were a few years older than me. At one point Nick reminisced about their memories of Milwaukee and how they had a special connection to Milwaukee after filming their music video for "When you Look me in the Eyes" there during that era. (This was new news to me.) Before writing this blogpost I looked up the music video and at first was like what theatre is this. After seeing a few clips it dawned on me that it was 100% the Rave, and I was correct. In the music video you can also see the Lake Michigan lakefront, and the snow. Kevin made mention of Milwaukee being world champions with the Brewers win days before the show. It's super cool how that worked out. Getting to travel to a city that just won the World Series days later. There was a guy in the audience with a Brewers World Champions shirt that was put on the big screen, and he looked like he was having the worst time of his life. (On their podcast Nick and Joe talked about having October 30th and October 31st off, and how they were going to travel home quick on those days off. That in itself is insane, but Joe took it the extra mile and traveled to both London and NYC before flying to Milwaukee for the show. His two daughters live in London with his ex-wife (they coparent well), and NYC is where he currently lives and wanted to take his god son trick-or-treating on Halloween. He also somehow had the energy to visit the Estabrook beer garden before the show with Kevin, and make a Tik Tok hanging out in the fall leaves.) (I guess he frequently goes to smaller places like coffee shops before shows.) For the podcast they did before Halloween Joe was dressed as a hot dog, so their were two fans near the stage also dressed as hot dogs. In our particular row their were two little kids with light up baseball caps that read "Burnin Up".
It was so nostalgic and healing singing the songs that meant so much to me with thousands of others. "Year 3000", "When You Look Me in the Eyes", "S.O.S", "LoveBug", "How We Roll". "A Little Bit Longer", "Burnin Up", "Gotta Find You" to name a few. It was made even better with how much their voices have matured and improved, not that they weren't good singers before. (I kind of hope they do a re-recording of the older songs with their adult voices). For the first part of the show they played the songs from their "Burnin Up" tour, and for the second half they sang a few of their newer songs along with some songs they released as solo artists. Kevin usually only sings backup vocals, but released a solo song in the past year called "Changing". Kevin didn't have interest in doing solo music before, and was nervous to do so, but the song is great. It sounds like a mix of Nick and Joe Jonas's singing styles put together. I had always thought that Nick Jonas was a really talented singer, and liked Joe's voice too, but Kevin can sing just as well. I never noticed until it was pointed out how groany Joe Jonas's singing voice is. (If you don't understand what I mean just listen to a few of their older songs. Nick Jonas also does it a little bit as well, but it's more prominent with Joe. I shuffled songs from the setlist on the way to Milwaukee, and when Kevin's song came on Mary pointed out it was his solo song, and I hadn't realized it was his voice at first. Right before intermission they played "Burnin Up". During their 2008 tour Kevin and Joe did a drum routine with water on top that would splash up when they played. They brought the drums back for this tour. During the original recording of "Burnin Up" they had their security guard back then (Big Rob) do a rap verse on it. Big Rob was in attendance at Milwaukee and did the rap verse live. (I think that's their only song with rapping in it. :P) It's become kind of a meme for how Nick sings the lyric "red dress" in "Burnin' Up" so there were cheers and claps after that line. Since I go to a lot of general admission shows I couldn't remember if admission during a stadium tour was normal, it's not. The Jonas Brothers had a lot of outfit changes throughout the show though, and it felt like a nice transition before their older songs and new songs. (It also allowed Mary and I to get drinks as we were parched from singing.) One of the outfit changes happened during the middle of the performance somehow. I don't know how they did it, but at some point Joe switched from the neon yellow shirt to a "Burnin Up" muscle tee. (Obviously he must of quickly disappeared backstage somewhere. They must have took turns doing outfit changes.) For the second part of the show they usually wear matching varsity jackets in black or red that say Jonas on the back. (You too can match them for $300.) The jackets also have their signature heart emblem on them.)
In their 2019 documentary "Chasing Happiness" it talked about how Nick was the first one to pursue music, and even performed on Broadway in "Les Miserables" as a kid. As the only middle child back then Joe wanted attention, and end up getting hired to do "Camp Rock" for the Disney Channel. Being on the Disney Channel is what lead to them blowing up. Their dad was actually a pastor at a local church in New Jersey where they grew up, and got kicked out of the church because of their music. I guess the church members felt like the Jonas Brothers were too secular.
In the crowd there were people holding up flame cutouts that spelled out "Louder". During their performance of "Waffle House", their were people holding up letters spelling out "Waffle House" in the Waffle House colors. I held up a millennial hand heart when Joe would face our section while performing. During their performances Joe usually gives a fan a tambourine, and goes into the crowd to sing "Backwards" with a fan. (On the other side of the barricade). Usually there are fans near barricade that have signs asking for the tambourine or to sing "Backwards". During this specific tour fans have been throwing Pokemon card packs on the stage for Joe. Joe is big into collecting Pokemon cards, and will film himself opening Pokemon card packs on Tik-Tok. During the show Joe will pick up the card packs and put them in his jacket pocket for later. As their leaving the stage Joe will pull out one of the packs and open it and go through the cards live before they disappear below the stage. When I saw them doing this live I assumed they were taking a picture with the crowd, and saw a video of Joe opening a Pokemon card pack. Mary unknowingly got a picture of Joe with the Pokemon pack. The fan Joe chose at the Milwaukee show had a sign that said "Joe get lei'd for tambourine" Joe had already given out his tambourine at that point but had the fan sing along with him to "Backwards." She had a purple lei she put on Joe after singing with him.
After the show we were able to get in and out of the parking garage fairly quickly given the circumstance. A girl even gave me $5 for allowing her to pull in front of me after being blocked from doing so by a line of cars. (It was lowkey scary getting approached by a girl by my car window holding up cash. At first I thought she may be asking for a ride so I didn't roll down my window right away. Asking someone for a ride in a parking garage doesn't really make sense though.) I would definitely love to see them again sometime. Thanks for reading about my concert experience, and probably learning more than you wanted to know about the Jonas Brothers.
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