With Nick in a Dallas Cowboys jacket, Joe sporting studded pants and a matching coat emblazoned with “SAVE A HORSE” and Kevin off-theme in a “New Jersey”-printed jacket, the brothers looked the part for a tour all about paying homage to where you’re from. Before they’d walked on, large screens above the stage played videos with voiceovers about how concert attendees were right where they were supposed to be; how, no matter our differences, this night was one that would bring us together. It would all feel offensively saccharine if the Jonas Brothers weren’t so good at what they do, which is remind their listeners of better days until it feels like the better days are happening right now.
JONAS20: Greetings From Your Hometown is both the name of the band’s 52-concert U.S. tour and their seventh album, released in August. The fact that the tour and album mark the band’s 20th anniversary is one that makes fans who bought their debut album in 2006 feel old. But if a lot of time has passed, the crowd just seems happy to be around to celebrate–we mostly spotted older Gen Zers and millennial adults that had grown up on the brothers’ Disney Channel show, some of them even toting along children of their own.
Jonas Brothers had surprise guests lined up at previous stops, bringing out Switchfoot, Jesse McCartney, Dean Lewis and Demi Lovato. For Dallas, Dos Equis Pavilion became the site of girl group Fifth Harmony’s reunion. Now a quartet, Normani, Lauren Jauregui, Ally Brooke and Dinah Jane launched into performances of “Work from Home” and “Worth It” with no introduction beyond a short clip and no speech explaining their appearance. On hiatus since 2018, their unexpected reunion became one of the most discussed parts of the show on pop-stan sides of social media.
But back to the Jo Bros. They opened their show with “Love Me to Heaven,” Greetings from Your Hometown’s lead single. It’s clear that the band has shed the teenage pop-punk sound for which they were originally known in favor of a glossier pop sound, refined over the past three post-reunion albums. It works well to get you on your feet when listening live. Soon after, though, the stage screens showed a flirty text exchange introducing 2007’s “S.O.S,” arguably the Jonas Brothers at their pop-punk best. Though the lyrics feel a tad juvenile–they were, after all, penned by a then-fifteen-year-old Nick–in their description of teen crushes, the brothers’ ability to command a stage and really rock out hasn’t changed at all. When Joe shouted, “What a beautiful crowd, Dallas!” you could hear the titters of the aforementioned now-millennial women who, in that moment, felt like little girls with boyband crushes again.
Fifth Harmony wasn’t the only special surprise. Nick promised a show with plenty of them. Dallas-based musician Ryan Cabrera walked out, performing his 2004 debut single “On the Way Down” to a warm reception despite not being the rumored Miley Cyrus.
For critics who argue that the brothers’ music lacks depth, the show took a brief emotional turn during the ballad “Little Bird,” from 2023’s The Album; cameras panned through the crowd, revealing signs thanking the band for bringing together families, sparking engagements and providing the happiest of childhood memories. “We’ve told you about ourselves,” said Joe. “But now we want to get to know you.” And what they learned is probably nothing new: their fanbase is loyal to a fault. Among the interviewed were fans who were at their 19th and 73rd shows, as well as a mom who recalled watching Camp Rock with her young daughter. The band took two requests from these fans, singing “One Day at a Time” and “Love Is On Its Way” in what were the first live performances of those songs since 2013 and 2006, respectively.
Fan service often carries a negative connotation, but the brothers kept the audience fed not only with song requests but with the kind of guest fans would likely have requested if they could. Kelsea Ballerini, Grammy Award-nominated country singer and 2021 Jonas Brothers tour opener herself, strutted out to play her own 2015 hit “Peter Pan” and lend her voice to the band’s 2009 song “Fly With Me.”
Then, as the second single off of Greetings from Your Hometown, “No Time to Talk” marked a setlist transition to a more mature funk sound. Though a sample of “Stayin’ Alive” does much of the heavy lifting for the song, the brothers and their band still brought the energy. JinJoo Lee got on the mic to introduce herself as the guitarist of DNCE, the dance-rock band Joe helmed from 2015 to 2018 and again from 2022 to 2024 before taking a hiatus. A performance of innuendo-laden “Cake by the Ocean” kept the sexier vibes from “No Time to Talk” going.
Marshmello took the stage at 9:40 p.m. to play an underwhelming 20-minute set devoid of energy or innovation. He began with his 2018 hit “Friends,” repeatedly cutting the sound of Anne-Marie’s voice to let the crowd sing back the words; if more people knew the words, this might not have had the effect of onstage technical difficulties, but that was, in fact, the unfortunate reality. The most mixing Marshmello did was a mashup of his 2017 Selena Gomez single “Wolves” with the late Avicii’s “Wake Me Up.” Best known as a producer of late 2010s pop hits, Marshmello was never going to show up and play an experimental deep house set–if anything, he gave the crowd exactly what they were expecting–but it felt like he’d simply pressed play on a playlist that rarely engaged the audience and felt incohesive.
Though the departure from the main act to Marshmello was a bit abrupt, the former took the stage at 10 p.m. to cheers even louder than when they’d first stepped on for Act I. A collaborative performance of “Leave Before You Love Me” marked Marshmello’s departure from the stage and the tour, and after this point, the show seemed to heat up. We came into the night wanting nothing more than to hear some of Nick’s solo work, because, pre-Benson Boone, we believed he was America’s last truly great male pop star. A breathy solo performance of “Jealous,” his highest-selling single to date, satisfied this desire, briefly taking the vibes from sweet to a little sultry while reinforcing that, yes, this youngest brother has some serious pipes.
Then the brothers rejoined Nick to announce the Plain White T’s as another special guest. A torrential downpour opened up on the lawn around 10:15 p.m., but the crowd was no quieter for it, never missing a word of “Hey There Delilah.” Shortly after, it seemed as if Joe was about to introduce another guest, but he was just teeing up Kevin for a deserved moment alone. As lead guitarist, Kevin is often overlooked in favor of Nick and Joe’s more powerful vocals; “Changing,” his first-ever solo song, debuted just eight nights ago on the tour’s stop in Boston. Kevin is the only brother who hasn’t yet released solo music, so it’s possible this performance was preparation for it.
They closed their show with two classic hits back-to-back–“Year 3000” and “Burnin’ Up”–the former of which mentions a future version of the band releasing their seventh album. In 2025, they’ve finally accomplished that. An encore performance of “When You Look Me in the Eyes” welcomed back younger brother and opener Frankie Jonas to the stage alongside father Kevin Jonas, Sr., on the piano, for a last song that left more than a few attendees teary-eyed.
In attendance with a friend who had seen them on tour in 2009, we agreed that the brothers looked and sounded better than ever. Somehow, we said, nothing seems to have changed at all. The Greetings from Your Hometown Tour is meant to feed nostalgia, but the band genuinely seems to enjoy doing so without ever taking themselves too seriously. Everyone came to see the brothers do what they’ve done best since they were teenagers: put on a show and have fun doing it.
