The Stadium Bros: Jonas Brothers Go Big On ‘Five Albums. One Night. The World Tour’

Jonas Brothers fans in attendance at Fresno, California’s 16,000-capacity Save Mart Center for the band’s “Five Albums. One Night. The World Tour” show on Nov. 2 are wearing their sparkliest best, with some sporting T-shirts declaring their devotion to either Kevin, Joe or Nick. The stage for the tour is designed with fans in mind, with two thrusts on the main stage stretching out into the audience, along with a B stage, so the guys can divide up and each give a section of the crowd some love. While fans might each have their favorite Jonas, their allegiance to the group as a single entity is clear in how the crowd’s cheers during the nearly three-hour long show manage to get loudest whenever all three siblings gather together on one section of the stage.

“The fans support each of the brothers individually … but when the three of them are together, it’s actually super impactful and significantly more exponential,” the band’s longtime agent, David Zedeck, UTA Partner and Global Co-Head of Music, says. “It’s almost three times three – the energy level when they’re on that center thrust, when they’re all on one microphone … that’s what the fans want.

“And hundreds of shows later they deliver as the veterans they are,” Zedeck adds. “Whether ‘Five Albums. One Night’ is the first time you’ve seen them or, like some people have, seen every tour multiple times, it’s never the same old show. They deliver energetically every night. They never go through motions.”

Live Nation Senior VP of Touring Brad Wavra concurs, saying, “They’ve explored their solo careers and each had a degree of success with that but together they are a force of nature.”

The majority of fans at the show range in age from teenagers to millennials, many of whom have grown up alongside Kevin (age 36) Joe (34) and Nick (31) since the trio of siblings raised in Wyckoff, New Jersey, formed the pop-rock band 18 years ago as teenagers.

The band’s sixth studio album, The Album, was released in May on Republic Records – their label partner since the band’s celebrated return with “Sucker” in 2019 – and manages to balance the Jonas Brothers’ early musical influences while reflecting where they are now.

“There was a lot of influence from our childhood music that our dad would play us, artists such as Fleetwood Mac, America, brother and sibling bands, the Bee Gees, etc.,
where a lot of artists would utilize harmonies,” Nick Jonas tells Pollstar. “And then from personal experiences of growing up in small towns and having nothing but our bicycles
to ride around the city. Long days out in the sun, growing up going to New York City, hanging out with your friends.”

He added, “I think the album is a testament to where we are as family, as brothers. And we wanted to make something that connected people to their families and their stories. While also, you know, getting to create with someone we’d always dreamed of collaborating with Jon Bellion, (Chance the Rapper, Maroon 5 and Halsey, among others) – and the spark that he brings to everything he does.”

“Five Albums. One Night. The World Tour” is a celebration of the group’s nearly-two-decade career, with a setlist featuring more than 60 songs from the new LP, 2007’s Jonas Brothers, 2008’s A Little Bit Longer, 2009’s Lines, Vines and Trying Times and 2019’s Happiness Begins.

“It’s an ambitious undertaking when somebody says ‘let’s play [almost] every song we’ve ever written.’ … These guys are all athletes. They have a model of ‘A day off is a day wasted.’” Wavra says. “They knew this was going to be a two and a half to three-hour undertaking and they looked at each other and said, ‘Let’s do it.’”

The tour was inspired by a five-night Broadway run at New York City’s Marquis Theatre March 14-18, in which Jonas Brothers performed one of their albums released between 2007 and 2019 per night, concluding with the debut of The Album.

“After that, we started to feel like there might be a way that we could figure out how to play all of this music in one night and bring it across America and the rest of the world to see our fans,” Kevin Jonas says.

In approaching how the band structured the setlist for the tour, Kevin says, “Playing five albums in one night required a lot of homework to make sure the set would be the right amount of time. And so I think what we tried to do was pick the moments and songs that were tentpoles for those different albums, and play those in their entirety, and then find a way to make the rest of the album work in what we call the mosaic to celebrate the journey that got us to where we are today.”

The tour highlights the band’s history, from footage on the jumbo screens showing the Brothers over the years, from teens to becoming fathers and special moments like receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, along with the siblings taking turns addressing the crowd to share tidbits about each of the albums.

“When we wrote this album, we had just been dropped by our record label because our first album didn’t do well,” Nick tells the crowd in Fresno. “We had a decision to make – were we going to give up? We went down to our basement in New Jersey and started writing songs about stuff that was real to us: first love, first heartbreak and everything in between. Every song we played went on that demo and became the album Jonas Brothers. Whether you’re a longtime fan or a new fan, welcome to the family. Thank you for your undying support.”

The guys keep things interesting during the nearly three-hour show, whether it’s Nick switching up instruments from guitar to drums to piano, while Joe shows off his vocals from atop a drum kit, along with his tambourine skills, and Kevin handles lead guitar – or how the brothers move from the main stage to the smaller B stage for more intimate tunes.

“We added the B stage in the ‘Happiness Begins’ tour and it felt like something that we want to continue. We wanted to make sure that every album had a moment out at the B stage. So we continued to do that. So we go back and forth about five times,” Kevin says.
Zedeck notes that he happened to be in the room with the Jonas Brothers while they met with set designer Alex Reardon [who worked with Baz Halpin of Silent House] and took an active role in giving input on the configuration.

“They did a very good job when they designed the stage by making sure they can get to as many fans as possible with the thrusts,” Zedeck says. “And they have a B stage behind the soundboard … so they’re playing to the back of the house in the furthest seats from the stage for a number of songs.”

Jonas Brothers’ live show is taken to the next level with their massive, wildly talented backing band featuring Jack Lawless on drums; Carrol Tyler on bass; Tom Crouch and JinJoo Lee on guitar; Michael Wooten on keys; Molly Lopresti on percussion; Mark Joseph, KellyeAnn Rodgers, Christine Smit and Liv Walker on backing vocals; Michael Sarian on trumpet, Gabi Rose on alto sax, Fabian Chavez on tenor sax, Jeffery Miller on trombone and Danica Pinner on cello/string lead.

“This is by far the largest family brought on the road,” Nick says. “But because we’re tracking so many different parts of our musical journey, we wanted to make sure that we were fully loaded with all the musicianship that we would need. So we added a four-piece horn section, a cellist, a percussionist and a few more backup singers to really fill out the sound and we’re so glad we did because this band is incredible.”

The setlist includes a few extras including tunes from Joe and Nick’s respective solo careers – and a special treat for Fresno in honor of the holiday season.

“Fres-snow” is seen on the screens and the Jonas Brothers perform their 2019 holiday tune “Like It’s Christmas” as fake snow falls onto the crowd at Save Mart Center, followed by a rendition of the 2015 single “Cake by the Ocean” by Joe’s band DNCE, complete with confetti.

Jonas Brothers has played some stadiums (they were one of the first to take the stage at AT&T Stadium, formerly Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington, Texas, during “World Tour 2009”) and previously lined up a stupendous number of dates, as with 2019-20’s “Happiness Begins Tour,” which marked the guys’ first tour since reuniting after their 2013 split – but “Five Albums. One Night. The World Tour” is clearly the group’s most ambitious trek.
The tour features more than 90 shows across 20 countries, made up of three legs of dates, with 2024 gigs scheduled Feb. 27 through March 9 in New Zealand and Australia, and May 18 through June 20 in Europe.

Based on data from 55 shows submitted to Pollstar Boxoffice, the gargantuan trek is already nearing a gross of $100 million.

The tour’s kickoff at Yankee Stadium in New York City Aug. 12-13 sold a total of 87,282 tickets, with a gross of $11.8 million. The trek has boasted sold-out gigs at arenas across the U.S., and a handful of other major stadium shows including a Sept. 9 show at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles that sold 44,889 tickets and grossed $5.5 million.

Asked how Jonas Brothers have become bigger than ever, Zedeck says, “It’s because they come with great new music – ‘Waffle House’ is an incredible record. … I know they’re super proud of the [new] album. … And because they’ve been doing it for 18 years, part of the reason that they’re selling more tickets than ever is that they’re truly a multi-generational band. The original 12- or 14-year-old fan is [30 or] 32. The fan from “Sucker” might have been 12 or 14 [and is now 16 or 18]. And there’s some fans that are only finding them now with ‘Waffle House.’ Their fanbase is one of the most loyal I’ve ever seen. They stick by them.”

That loyalty extends to the bond between Jonas Brothers and their team, including working with Zedeck, Wavra and the band’s longtime manager Phil McIntyre of Philymack since the start. Plus, UTA Music Executive JT Taylor has worked with the Jonas Brothers in various capacities including serving as the band’s original guitarist and musical director, helping launch Nick’s solo career and overseeing creative on the “Happiness Begins Tour” while president at Philymack.

“It has been an absolute joy to work alongside the Brothers, as well as Phil Mcintyre and Greg Garbowsky [of Philymack], over the last 18 years. The memories and camaraderie we have forged together could fill a library’s worth of books. From riding around in a minivan to performing in middle school auditoriums to selling out stadiums around the globe, every minute has felt like a dream. Even today, it still feels like we are just getting started!” Taylor says.

He adds, “I’m so excited to be able to work alongside David Zedeck, and the entire team at UTA, to create new opportunities and continue to foster the legacy that the Brothers have built on and off stage. Their appetite to evolve and explore new mediums of entertainment is what keeps everything in the Jonas universe so dynamic and exciting. Every day is a new journey, and every night they leave it all on the stage. They are truly world-class performers with a world-class work ethic, and I’m thrilled to be along for the ride.”

“Five Albums. One Night. The World Tour” takes a break after a Dec. 9 show at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and then the group returns to the road in February.

“We are finishing our tour off in Brooklyn, which will be a blast, kind of a homecoming to the northeast area for us,” Joe Jonas says. “And then we take this tour internationally – we haven’t been out to Australia, New Zealand literally ever as a band. So this will be really exciting to go to Australia and perform in New Zealand.”

The European leg also includes Jonas Brothers’ first shows in Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, Northern Ireland, Hamburg, Lyon, Munich, and Norway.

“And we also just recently put out a song with Bailey Zimmerman, a country artist, ‘Strong Enough’ and we are flying to College GameDay to perform,” Joe adds. “It’s been fun to tap into a different market than traditionally would be our genre.”