Happiness begins at a Jonas Brothers show
After an official comeback in 2019, the band performed all their albums for long-standing fans during their most recent North American tour.
I’m a big fan of the Jonas Brothers. Since the release of their self-titled debut in 2007, the Jonas Brothers have been a part of every stage of my life, as they periodically dropped classic albums like A Little Bit Longer (2008) and Lines, Vines, and Trying Times (2009). The band’s break up in 2013 shook me to my core; it was as if my own family was falling apart, but that didn’t stop me from listening to their music day in and day out.
Then came their individual musical endeavours: middle brother Joe Jonas co-founded the dance-rock group DNCE in 2015, while Nick Jonas, the youngest, released two solo albums. The songs that came from these projects were undoubtedly bangers, but deep down, there was some magic missing. This is why the news of the three brothers getting back together in February of 2019 made me fall to my knees in the middle of my high school atrium.
Four years after the release of their comeback album Happiness Begins, and after standalone singles like “Remember This” and “Who’s In Your Head,” all eyes were on the Jonas Brothers to see when their next full-length project would hit shelves—a question that kept me refreshing their Instagram feed almost every single day.
As the group finally received their well-overdue star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in January 2023, Nick took, as stated by Rolling Stone, the opportunity to announce their new album, The Album, much to the satisfaction of fans across the world. In the months leading up to The Album’s release on May 12, 2023, the band put out singles like “Wings” and “Waffle House.” To say these singles were signs of a revitalization of their sound would be a severe understatement.
The night of May 11 had arrived, and The Album was scheduled for release at midnight. As the clock slowly passed 11:59 p.m., my refresh-fingers immediately navigated to the band’s page to hit play on track one, titled “Miracle.” “Walking on a hot coal, never wore a rhinestone / But you really suit my body,” belted Nick Jonas in the song’s opening lines. From this moment forward, through the 11 songs that followed, the smile on my face never faded, not until I fell asleep at 3 a.m. after looping the album’s closing track, “Walls,” more times than I can count—a personal favourite and standout from their new body of work.
The Album is everything a Jonas Brothers fan needs and then some. Sonically refreshing from top to bottom, with major credit to producer Jon Bellion, yet still the same boys I have grown up listening to and loving since childhood. With Joe and Nick joining eldest of the trio, Kevin Jonas, in becoming fathers this time around, their new album held a prominent sense of maturity that wasted no time conveying how important family can be.
The natural next stage in this process entitled “Jonas Brothers Obsession” is eagerly anticipating the announcement of any sort of event that would yield an opportunity to hear these new songs live. In flawless timing, the FIVE ALBUMS. ONE NIGHT. TOUR was announced, with a Toronto date set for mid-August 2023. The decision to go to this show was a no-brainer for me.
Once the agonizing wait was up, the day had come, and it was everything I needed to complete my summer. The three-hour expansive setlist covered each of their five albums, as promised, and no doubt brought concertgoers back to the past with their earlier tunes. The band brought enough energy to keep each attendee at Toronto’s Rogers Centre on their feet for the entire show. We heard earlier songs from their discography, but with the brothers’ now seasoned voices, it was nothing short of a treat for my inner child.
From running through merch lines to losing my voice and trying to gain it back by drinking a Double Double from the nearest Tims after the show, it was a night I won’t ever forget. As I was on the train back home, one takeaway in my mind was certain: wherever these Jersey boys go next, it’s clear that I’ll always be along for the ride.
Photos Editor (Volume 50) — Daanish is wrapping up his final year at UTM, majoring in Technology, Coding & Society, and minoring in Mathematics and Cinema Studies. He's aware of how odd that combination is, but that is enough to describe him in a nutshell. Carrying his cameras wherever he goes, you can find Daanish furiously writing Letterboxd reviews, cheering on the Maple Leafs, and blasting the Jonas Brothers any chance he gets.