Jonas Brothers Review

Jonas Brothers celebrate RodeoHouston return by setting new attendance record

The band broke the mark set by Los Tigres Del Norte on Sunday.

Fifteen years after their last appearance as teen stars, the now fully-grown up Jonas Brothers – Kevin, Joe, and Nick – conquered their second headlining perfromance at RodeoHouston on Friday, March 15 by setting an all-time attendance record with 75,600 fans.

The night’s show made the case that pop groups can get better with age via an exciting mix of hit singles from their songbook over the course of their 75-minute show. While the trio operates in the same space as other pop-rock acts like Maroon 5 or OneRepublic, their Disney star past meant that their fans have grown up with them.

They now have a nearly two decades of hits – including five Billboard top five albums — to pull from, and those years of experience paid off on the star-shaped stage. They seemingly knew exactly what their audience wanted with a set that had nothing but smashes. In reality, they could have played the birthday song 12 times, and it still would have been the loudest show of the year.

Before they launched Jonas Brothers 2.0 in 2019, the group took a long hiatus that allowed the three brothers to branch out into solo careers, side-projects, acting in movies (most notably Nick in a star-making turn in Jumanji), TV shows, and more. So with the release of the comeback No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 single, “Sucker,” in 2019, they’d gained a multitude of new fans, mostly the children of the suburban women who had their posters on their bedroom walls back in the early-2000s. Plenty of tabloid fodder that came from marriages to famous actresses and an impending divorce surely didn't hurt their visibility.

Several sold-out arena tours under their belt (including two huge shows at Toyota Center last year), and a couple of actually good comeback records were the cherry on top, making the Jo-Bros one of the biggest bands in the pop world. They were an excellent choice to play RodeoHouston on the Friday that falls on spring break for many Houston students. The fact that they shattered the all-time attendance record almost shouldn't be a surprise.

The Jonas Brothers were sneakily talented, at ease on stage playing with each other, and they appeared to be having a good time. They are also extremely tight musicians, coming in hot from the middle of their 90-date “The Tour” world tour, a setlist comprised of songs from across their career, much like Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour. A backing band featuring solid professionals playing brass, strings, keyboard, and drums took their sound to the next level.

Unfortunately, with RodeoHouston’s time constraints, the trio could only perform 14 songs, but they didn’t miss when they condensed their usual 33-song setlist.

Opener “Celebrate!” from their latest album, The Album, harkened back to ‘70s funk groups like Earth, Wind and Fire, Joe taking lead singer duties, dressed in a pink and black western shirt, leather pants and black cowboy hat.

The 2020 single, “What a Man Gotta Do,” featured vocal trade-offs between Joe and Nick, the latter dressed in a red shirt and jeans pulling electric guitar duties, while Kevin played acoustic guitar dressed handsomely in full blue denim. The song elicited a cacophony of screams that assured some form of hearing loss for all those in the seats. “Waffle House” from 2023’s The Album kept the decibels high.

“We had a few incredible stops in Houston, but this is next level,” Nick said, addressing the youthful, mostly female throng. “We usually play for a few hours, but we have to play the highlights tonight. That said, we think it’s important to bring it back to where it started — how many OG Jonas Brothers fans are in the house?"

That drew what might have been the loudest cheers of the entire RodeoHouston season before kicking into the 2007 smash, “S.O.S,” from their self-titled second album. The brothers all joined in on vocals for the best performance of the night so far.

“Cool,” from 2019 comeback album, Happiness Begins, brought a sugary rush with an undeniable chorus. The one-two acoustic ballad punch of Joe's “Gotta Find You" from mouse-house flick, Camp Rock, and Nick's "Introducing Me” from Camp Rock 2 slowed things down, the singalong nearly drowning out the singers on stage. Follow-up “Play My Music” was one of the most upbeat numbers of the night.

“For a big part of our life we spent time in Texas,” Joe said, alluding to their youth spent in Westlake, near Austin. "We actually wrote this next one with our dad.”

“When You Look Me in the Eyes” brought out thousands of cellphone flashlights, one of the closest country music-sounding songs so far. The emo-pop tune and top 40 hit, “Year 3000” — actually from the year 2007 and quite obviously a song of their youth — was a Blink-182 song if that band were more earnest and wholesome. A contagious, stadium-wide, round of clapping broke out.

“Jealous”, the No. 7-charting Nick solo song allowed for him to take the spotlight in a brown cowboy hat, his high-octave vocal prowess on full display. He took a bow and a hat-tip and deserved it.

Joe commandeered the stage next with the excellent “Cake by the Ocean." The No. 9 hit by his side-project DNCE allowed that band’s guitarist, JinJoo Lee, a moment to shine, utilizing the stage starpoints to make sure the entire venue felt like they were a part of the party. The song ended with a wicked Lee guitar solo.

And no headliner can go wrong with a cover of “Friends In Low Places" by the highest-selling country artist in history and multi-time RodeoHouston headliner, Garth Brooks. While not the strongest executed performance of the night — they admitted they were still learning the song — it united the entire audience. Dads who brought their daughters to the show were thankful that they actually recognized one.

“Lovebug” was an epic rush, before going headlong into the biggest song of the night in “Burnin’ Up,” the top five single from the record, A Little Bit Longer. “Only Human," the other huge hit from their 2019 comeback album, Happiness Begins, kept the energy at 11, the bangers seemingly endless.

“Sucker,” the No. 1 hit comeback single from that same album sounded as good as it did when it was released, with some impressive whistling by Joe, the women in the crowd audibly expressing their approval. And finally, the ballad “Leave Before You Love Me” served as the easy comedown— melodic hints of Wham’s melancholic-sweetener, “Last Christmas.”

With that, the brothers hopped onto the back of a pick-up truck as the announcer notified us we were all a part of RodeoHouston history. While previous 2024 RodeoHouston shows leaned definitively towards the adult side, the now seasoned pros reminded us that family friendly headliners can still fill the building.

It'd be a shame to make us wait another 15 years to get the Jonas Brothers back to RodeoHouston.

Setlist
Celebrate!
What a Man Gotta Do
Waffle House
S.O.S
Cool
Play My Music
When You Look Me in the Eyes
Year 3000
Jealous
Cake By the Ocean
Friends in Low Places
Lovebug
Only Human
Sucker
Love Me Before You Leave Me

concert review jonas brothers rodeo rodeohouston concerts

In Memoriam

Texas-based actor James Van Der Beek dies at 48

James Van Der Beek/Instagram

James Van Der Beek announced he was being treated for colorectal cancer in 2024.

Actor James David Van Der Beek has died, according to an announcement on his social media. He was 48 years old.

"Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning," the post reads. "He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity, and the sacredness of time. Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend.

Van Der Beek shared in 2020 that he and his family were moving to the Austin area, and they settled in Spicewood. He announced his colorectal cancer diagnosis in 2024.

In late 2025, Van Der Beek auctioned some of his TV memorabilia from his time on Dawson's Creek to pay for his treatment.

The actor originally starred in coming-of-age dramas at the dawn of the new millennium, shooting to fame playing the titular character in Dawson’s Creek and in later years parodied his own hunky persona.

Forever tied to ‘Dawson’s Creek'
A one-time theater kid, Van Der Beek would star in the movie Varsity Blues and on TV in CSI: Cyber as FBI Special Agent Elijah Mundo, but was forever connected to Dawson’s Creek, which ran from 1998 to 2003 on The WB.

The series followed a group of high school friends as they learned about falling in love, creating real friendships and finding their footing in life. Van Der Beek, then 20, played 15-year-old Dawson Leery, who aspired to be a director of Steven Spielberg quality.

With Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want To Wait,” as its moody theme song, Dawson's Creek helped define The WB as a haven for teens and young adults who related to its hyper-articulate dialogue and frank talk about sexuality. And it made household names of Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, and Joshua Jackson.

“While James' legacy will always live on, this is a huge loss to not just your family but the world,” Sarah Michelle Gellar wrote to his widow on Instagram. Katharine McPhee Foster added: “This is just beyond devastating news.” Others posting messages of mourning were Jenna Dewan and Olivia Munn.

The show caused a stir when one of the teens embarked on a racy affair with a teacher 20 years his senior and when Holmes' character climbed through Dawson's bedroom window and they curled up together. Racier shows like Euphoria and Sex Education owe a debt to Dawson's Creek.

Van Der Beek sometimes struggled to get out from under the shadow of the show but eventually leaned into lampooning himself, like on Funny Or Die videos and on Kesha's “Blow” music video, which included his laser gun battle with the pop star in a nightclub and dead unicorns.

“It’s tough to compete with something that was the cultural phenomenon that Dawson’s Creek was,” he told Vulture in 2013. “It ran for so long. That’s a lot of hours playing one character in front of people. So it’s natural that they associate you with that.”

A popular GIF and Varsity Blues
More than a decade after the show went off the air, a scene at the end of the show’s third season became a GIF. Dawson was watching as his soul mate embarks on a love affair with his best friend and burst into tears.

“It wasn’t scripted that I was supposed to cry; it was just one of those things where it’s a magical moment and it just happens in the scene,” Van Der Beek told Vanity Fair. He seemed exasperated when he told the Los Angeles Times: “All of a sudden, six years of work was boiled down to one seven-second clip on loop.” (Van Der Beek himself recreated the GIF in 2011 for Funny or Die and gave it a second life.)

While still on Dawson’s Creek, Van Der Beek hosted Saturday Night Live — the musical guest was Everlast — and landed a plumb role in Varsity Blues, playing a second-string high school quarterback who leaps into the breach when the star suffers an injury.

Van Der Beek’s character, Mox, turns out to not be a football fanatic, preferring to read Kurt Vonnegut and yearning for the college education that will allow him to escape the jock mentality of his Texas town.

“I don’t want your life,” he screams at one point. Critic Roger Ebert called him “convincing and likable.

After Dawson’s Creek
Some of his projects after Dawson’s Creek included co-creating and playing Wesley “Diplo” Pentz, a dull but likable music producer in the mockumentary satire on Viceland, What Would Diplo Do? In 2019, he made it to the semifinals of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and played a balding, out-of-shape ex-boyfriend on How I Met Your Mother.

“The more you make fun of yourself and don’t try to go for any kind of respect, the more people seem to respect you,” he told Vanity Fair in 2011. “I’ve always been a clown trapped in a leading man’s body.”

Between 2003 and 2013, he made appearances in shows like Criminal Minds, One Tree Hill, and How I Met Your Mother. He played himself with a crackpot intensity in the Krysten Ritter-led ABC drama Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23, and the short-lived CSI spinoff CSI: Cyber and CBS’ Friends With Better Lives.

He’s also appeared in movies such as Kevin Smith’s 2001 comedy Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and its 2019 sequel, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. He was in the Bret Easton Ellis adaptation of The Rules of Attraction in 2002 opposite Jessica Biel and Kate Bosworth.

In 2025, he was unmasked as Griffin on The Masked Singer, after singing a cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone and Morgan Wallen.

Early life as a theater kid
Van Der Beek, who was raised in Cheshire, Connecticut, started acting at 13 after suffering a concussion playing football that prevented him from playing for a year. He landed the role of Danny Zuko in his school production of Grease.

He stuck with theater, landing at 16 in 1994 an off-Broadway role in Finding the Sun by Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Albee and one of the sons in a revival of Shenandoah at the prestigious Goodspeed Opera House in his home state.

He earned a scholarship to New Jersey’s Drew University but left school early when he was cast in Dawson’s Creek. In 2024, he returned to campus to accept an honorary degree for his “selfless service and exemplary commitment to the mission of Drew,” the university said.

Drew University President Hilary Link welcomed Van Der Beek with a popular quote from his Dawson’s Creek character: “Edge is fleeting,” she said, “but heart lasts forever. So on this morning, we pay tribute to that heart.”

He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, and six children, Olivia, Joshua, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn and Jeremiah. A GoFundMe fundraiser has been established for the family.

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AP Music Writer Maria Sherman and CultureMap Austin editor Brianna Caleri contributed to this report.

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