Review: Jonas Brothers tried to keep fans on their feet for 3 hours. It wasn’t easy.

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Shortly after 8 p.m. on Saturday at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, as they waited for the house lights to dim, many thousands of Jonas Brothers fans suddenly started doing what they quite often do at JoBros concerts.

They suddenly started generating a whole lot of noise.

Although it took a few seconds to figure out why they were so excited (since Joe, Kevin and Nick were not yet anywhere in sight), the explanation soon became clear: Denise Miller-Jonas had been spotted inside one of the two fenced-off VIP sections next to the secondary mini-stage at the back of the arena; the sighting instantly went viral by word of mouth; and upon realizing she’d been spotted, the JB mom responded with a series of enthusiastic gestures that riled up the crowd even more.

But our ears, of course, hadn’t heard nothin’ yet.

Minutes later, when three of the world’s most famous boy-banders-turned-man-banders rose up from three different spots beneath the Y-shaped catwalk that jutted out from the main stage, the heavily female audience let out a collective “WOOOOOOOOO!” that would have brought Ric Flair to his knees.

And for the rest of the night, both the Jonases and their fans — many of the latter now having aged into their 30s along with the stars themselves — tried to maintain that energy level.

Which was no small task.

Whereas the last Jonas Brothers show I saw at Spectrum was a 98-minute sprint in 2019, this one was an ultramarathon that clocked in at nearly three hours and represents by far the most ambitious of the dozen tours they’ve staged since first hitting the road in 2005, when Nick was just 13 years old.

No, there’s nothing revolutionary about “The Tour” from a technical standpoint.

The Jonas Brothers perform in the “Five Albums. One Night. The World Tour” at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 30, 2023.
The Jonas Brothers perform in the “Five Albums. One Night. The World Tour” at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 30, 2023.

But musically, it’s a behemoth, from the 15-piece band that includes four brass instruments to the brothers’ commitment to performing at least part of every song off of five of their albums (omitting only their debut record, 2006’s “It’s About Time”).

It’s high-concept stuff, something you’d expect from, say, Taylor Swift or Foo Fighters.

It was also — as you might expect, given how these big pop tours work and due to that central conceit — a relatively familiar facsimile of the two dozen-plus shows the Jonases have already done since “The Tour” launched at Yankee Stadium in August.

It was the same setlist, in the same order, with the same full-bodied approaches to the more popular fare and the same medleys to quickly get the lesser songs checked off as they moved through 2007’s “Jonas Brothers,” 2008’s “A Little Bit Longer,” 2009’s “Lines, Vines and Trying Times,” and 2019’s “Happiness Begins,” with selections from this year’s new release “The Album” sprinkled in between.

Still, there were some key distinctions.

One was merely cosmetic — i.e. their wardrobes. Since superfans will surely care about such things, I’ll tell you: For the first half of the show, Joe wore a jersey-style shirt emblazoned with the words “Rhude Sail Team,” dressy white track-style pants with a black stripe down the sides, and red Adidas; Kevin had on a short-sleeved, white collared shirt with black pants; and Nick wore a mustard-colored jacket with dark-brown pants.

Then after the 18-minute intermission, Nick returned with a black tank top, brown leather pants, white sneakers, and a Charlotte Hornets ballcap turned backwards on his head; Kevin sported a dark-navy T-shirt, dark pants, and white sneakers; and Joe had on a collared, blue-and-black checkered, long-sleeved soccer jersey (again touting the “Rhude” label — and the number “1” on back) over baggy-shiny platinum pants, and white Adidas.

Nick Jonas runs his hands through his hair as The Jonas Brothers perform at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 30, 2023.
Nick Jonas runs his hands through his hair as The Jonas Brothers perform at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 30, 2023.

Meanwhile, whereas in 2019 the fellas didn’t really interact with their fans in any sort of meaningful way, this time Joe went off-script to chat up a couple of sign-bearing fans to endearing effect.

First, after an abbreviated acoustic version of “Inseparable” (which has to hit different for Joe right now, by the way, given his recent split with Sophie Turner and the already-ugly custody battle for their kids), he connected with humor.

In response to a woman’s sign that featured an artistic rendering of a text message from her fiance Andrew that said, “If Joe Jonas told me to go to a show, I would,” Joe offered to FaceTime him for her on the spot. She looked sick to her stomach when she told him she didn’t have any service from where she stood.

But he’d do her one better, he said, recording a video on her phone that she’ll be telling her grandkids about someday, in which he said into the camera: “I’m with your fiancee. I saw her sign.” Mid-recording, Joe paused to ask the woman: “Does Andrew drink?” She nodded. “Andrew drinks, OK. Andrew, look, I’ll tell you what: The more you drink, the better we sound. So, first round’s on me. Second round’s on Nick. And Kevin’s buying a drink ... for (your) fiancee, OK? ... Cheers, Andrew. We’ll see you next time.”

About 25 minutes further into the show, Joe introduced “Little Bird” by saying, “This next song’s all about becoming a parent,” then singling out a woman holding a related sign. “This one’s for you and Dad, OK?” he told her. “Thank you,” she replied into a mic, her voice trembling. “Thank you so much.”

The sign she held said: “My dad is singing ‘Little Bird’ from heaven.”

(I’m not crying. You’re crying.)

The Jonas Brothers perform at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 30, 2023.
The Jonas Brothers perform at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 30, 2023.

Last but not least, although they didn’t explicitly acknowledge Mom’s presence (or Dad’s, for that matter), the brothers did take time to point out their family’s connection to our area.

It’s something they didn’t do at the 2019 show I saw; and while I remember feeling like that was a missed opportunity, in hindsight I may have perceived it as a bigger snub than I should have. After all, at the time, their parents — Gaston County native Kevin Sr. and Denise — had only lived here a few years. The JoBros themselves grew up in northern New Jersey and were well out of the nest when Mom and Dad relocated in the mid-2010s to where Kevin Sr. grew up.

Even so, I was relieved that they didn’t ignore that tie this time around.

“In a lot of ways, North Carolina and more specifically Charlotte are very important to the Jonas family,” Nick explained, just over half an hour into the concert. “For those of you who don’t know, our dad is from ... Belmont, North Carolina, just about 20, 25 minutes away.”

By that math, you could have driven there and back more than four times during JB’s set Saturday. In fact, you could have departed from Charlotte at the beginning of the show and made it all the way to Raleigh with a stop to refuel the car and hit the drive-thru in less than the time it took for the Jonas Brothers to navigate those 64 songs inside Spectrum Center.

And from where I stood (and then, eventually, sat), it seemed like fans were running out of gas as the show moved into its third hour, with many joining me in taking a load off.

But they surged out of them with a vengeance for the final one-two punch of “Sucker” and “Leave Before You Love Me,” Joe’s “Yeah, I’m the type to get naked” line in the latter a particular lightning rod for eardrum-piercing shrieks.

However tired they all might have been by then, if that didn’t make the Jonases and their fans feel like teenagers again, nothing will.

Joe Jonas from The Jonas Brothers sings on a platform at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 30, 2023.
Joe Jonas from The Jonas Brothers sings on a platform at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 30, 2023.

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One quick postscript: I put “...” before “Belmont” in Nick’s quote above because I’m not exactly sure what he said in that shout-out to his father’s hometown. It sounded like “Hog Hill,” but I couldn’t find any a community with that name in our part of N.C. So, Jonas superfans, hit me up if you can fill in the blank...)

Jonas Brothers’ setlist

1. “Celebrate!”

2. “What a Man Gotta Do”

3. “S.O.S.”

4. “Hold On”

5. “Goodnight and Goodbye”

6. “That’s Just the Way We Roll”

7. “Still in Love With You” / “Australia” / “Hollywood” / “Just Friends” / “Games”

8. “Hello Beautiful” / “Inseparable” / “Take a Breath”

9. “When You Look Me in the Eyes”

10. “Year 3000”

11. “Summer Baby”

12. “Vacation Eyes”

13. “Sail Away”

14. “Little Bird”

15. “A Little Bit Longer”

16. “Can’t Have You” / “Sorry” / “BB Good” / “Shelf” / “Got Me Going Crazy” / “Video Girl” / “One Man Show” / “Pushin’ Me Away” / “Tonight”

17. “Lovebug”

18. “Burnin’ Up”

Kevin Jonas plays “What a Man Gotta Do” on guitar during The Jonas Brothers performance at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 30, 2023.
Kevin Jonas plays “What a Man Gotta Do” on guitar during The Jonas Brothers performance at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 30, 2023.

19. “Waffle House”

20. “Montana Sky”

21. “Miracle”

22. “Fly With Me”

23. “Hey Baby” / “Poison Ivy” / “Don’t Speak” / “Much Better” / “World War III” / “What Did I Do to Your Heart” / “Paranoid”

24. “Turn Right” / “Before the Storm” / “Black Keys”

25. “Jealous”

26. “Cake by the Ocean”

27. “Walls”

28. “Comeback” / “Rollercoaster” / “Strangers” / “Used to Be”

29. “Cool”

30. “Trust” / “Every Single Time” / “Happy When I’m Sad” / “Don’t Throw It Away”

31. “Love Her” / “Hesitate”

32. “I Believe”

33. “Only Human”

34. “Sucker”

35. “Leave Before You Love Me”