Concert review from columbusdispatch.com:

It’s not just about the music.

Last night’s sold-out Jonas Brothers concert at Nationwide Arena offered an opportunity for thousands of preteen and teenage girls to shriek together for hours on end.

Screeching started long before the Brothers appeared, helped along by the constant presence of a video screen urging the audience to “Scream if you love Kevin” or “Scream for Joe,” as well as the occasional “Simon says quack like a duck,” to which the audience also responded obediently.

Then there was the concert itself. The band, for the uninitiated, consists of three siblings from New Jersey, raised to stardom with the considerable help of the Disney corporation.

The three are undeniably cute, wholesome and musically competent, if not exceptionally so. Earnest Nick plays guitar, drums and piano; sultry Joe takes most of the lead vocals and plays a mean tambourine; and goofy Kevin plays lead guitar. They were backed at this concert by a full band, including an eight-piece string section, the members of whom performed seated dance moves when they weren’t otherwise engaged.

In keeping with the theme of the Burnin’ Up tour, fire made a frequent appearance, rippling up the sides of the steps on which the guys walked or bursting out behind them as they sang. These pyrotechnics earned at least as many screams as any of the songs.

The long set ranged through much of the band’s recordings, with short, upbeat numbers and a few ballads.

The concert should have been a lot of fun, but it often seemed more doggedly hard-working than exuberant.

Part of the problem was that the Brothers’ set never got any momentum going. Each time it would start to take off, it would soon come to a halt, once for a long and pointless drumstick-throwing contest between Nick and the backup drummer, once for the string section to demonstrate its virtuosity, and most notably for a video in which Nick discussed his life with juvenile diabetes, followed by his long solo performance of A Little Bit Longer, which details the unhappiness the disease causes him.

The Brothers lack the slick harmonies that make the typical boy band a guilty pleasure. Kevin sings only a rare bit of backup, and in concert, Joe’s strong voice tends to overshadow Nick’s thin, tentative one.

Though the video camera most often focused on Nick, Joe was definitely the star of this show: His breezy take on Shania Twain’s I’m Gonna Getcha Good (one of the few covers) erased the earnestness that sometimes swamped the show, and his lively, playful contributions to Lovebug gave the bubble-gummy song some sizzle.

Punk Australian twins The Veronicas opened the show, followed by Demi Lovato, who starred with the Brothers in Disney’s Camp Rock, and who moved with energy to spare from dramatic ballads to peppy light rock.

---