Wednesday night – my first mid-week show in I don’t even know how long – I headed back to XFinity Theater to see the Jonas Brothers. For this show, unlike Alanis that I had seen there previously, vax cards or negative covid tests were required. It was a quick flash of the vax card and I honestly felt a lot like it was just security theater for this show. The other times my ID needed to be checked against the card and for this show they didn’t seem to care at all. Many also did not get the memo that only small clear bags were allowed but it did sound like they had a bag check available.
The merch line was absolutely insane upon arrival but I was able to find one much shorter inside after bumping into a friend I hadn’t seen in YEARS! I then made my way to my seat early to get settled in and watch the drama unfold because of how the rows are numbered. The center section is A1, B1, C1, A, B, C, etc. As far as I know it’s always been this way but it seems like they don’t make the ushers aware of this (Mine at the top of the section said “Look for B!” Even though I was B1) A few girls decided since they “paid a lot of money for their tickets” even though they were in row A and assumed they were front row, they should get to stand at the barricade. No sweetie. We ALL paid a lot for our tickets and you are in 4th row so that gives you NO right to the barricade. Eventually, most of them got kicked out but one particularly ballsy one did end up coming back for Jonas and somehow ended up not getting kicked out again. Grrr. Honestly, if they were going to put up such a fight with security I would have told them they could just go to their ASSIGNED seat or they could leave the show entirely – $1000 down the drain. Entitled brats…
Jordan McGraw opened and he is a pile of trash and that’s it. That’s the review. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. (Well maybe I did already say it. But I’ll leave it at that)
Next up was Kelsea Ballerini. I am not much of a country fan, but I did enjoy her set despite only knowing her closing song “This Feeling”. She played a video during the set of her much younger talking about how much she loved the Jonas Brothers and then talked a bit about how amazing it has been to not only become a singer/songwriter herself and then get to OPEN for the Jonas Brothers.
Then it was time for Jonas! I thought they did a great mix of their setlist since I don’t really know as much as the new stuff that well, but there was absolutely plenty for me to still sing along to and they even included some of Joe’s DNCE songs and some of Nick’s solo songs as well. They all seemed to be having SO much fun on stage and I think that was the closest I had been for any of their shows I had seen previously. (Thanks for Citi Presale tickets that were actually probably Ticketmaster Platinum tickets in disguise.) I also was able to sit for the whole show which was really awesome thanks in part to the girl next to me who jumped in the row in front of me and blocked anyone who dared stand in front of me for longer than about 30 seconds. I really am loving all these fans looking out for me and making things a lot easier for me! I could have stood if I needed to, but am much more comfortable if able to sit. (Now if they could not spill things and make the floor too slippery for my cane, but that’s a whole other story) The Jonas show was not as out of control and theatrical as they usually are – they didn’t float up or come in from the ceiling. There was some fireworks and fire but it seemed a bit scaled back from some of their previous big tours and allowed us more to focus on the music than the spectacle. They also just ended the show on Sucker – no encore or coming back out at all. After they left the stage everyone was going nuts for roadies throwing things off the stage, and I just wanted to get OUT of there. Some girl came into the row, stood DIRECTLY in front of me, missed a pick being thrown and then complained about how it was crazy and like a war zone. Ok but you wanted to be in it so badly you came and stood right in front or someone who was trying to collect her things and leave so you’re not much better than anyone else crowding down there… Eventually I ended up weaving my way through some seats and making it out of there. Phew! The show went a lot later than I was expecting (especially for a week night! *insert grandma emoji here*) and I had a hotel near the airport about 20 minutes away that I didn’t get settled in to until nearly 1am! It was a lot of fun though and I was glad I went especially after having a rough couple of days – it was a nice distraction to help keep my mind off of everything else that was going on.
