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

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Awards Season

CultureMap critic's guide to the 2026 Oscar Best Picture nominees

Michael B. Jordan and Miles Caton in Sinners

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Sinners leads all films at the 2026 Academy Awards with a stunning 16 nominations.

The nominations for the 2026 Academy Awards have been announced, with 10 films vying for Best Picture. Leading the way is Sinners with an astonishing 16 nominations, the most in Oscars history.

The other top films include One Battle After Another, which earned 13 nominations, and Marty Supreme, Frankenstein, and Sentimental Value, which each got 9 nominations.

As a refresher, below are links to the full reviews for each of the nominees covered by CultureMap in the past year, as well as brief thoughts on the films and their various nominations.

Movie fans will have plenty of time to catch up with each of the nominees, as this year's Oscars ceremony will not take place until Sunday, March 15.

Here's the list of Best Picture nominees, in alphabetical order:

Bugonia
Yet another off-the-wall film from director Yorgos Lanthimos features two great performances by Emma Stone (nominated for Best Actress) and Jesse Plemons at its center. Written by Will Tracy (nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay), the conspiracy theory film is alternately brutal and funny as the characters played by Stone and Plemons use their form of power to try to manipulate the other. With a fair amount of intrigue and two great actors going head-to-head for much of its running time, it gives even more Oscar pedigree to its filmmakers and stars.

F1
The biggest surprise among the Best Picture nominees has to be the racing movie F1. It was a technical marvel, to be sure, as its nominations in Film Editing, Sound, and Visual Affects attest. But the fact that it has no other nominations in any of the above the fold categories indicates that its other qualities are lacking. As a showcase (aka advertisement) for the sport it depicts, the film works relatively well. As a complete movie, though, there’s not much to recommend, to the point that it almost negates any of the positives that come from the racing scenes.

Frankenstein (not reviewed)
Writer/director Guillermo del Toro (nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay) loves himself a monster movie, and he takes on one of the classics with his new version of Frankenstein (now streaming on Netflix). Oscar Isaac plays Victor Frankenstein, who brings to life The Creature, played by Jacob Elordi (nominated for Best Supporting Actor). With a slew of nominations in technical categories, there's a chance this film goes home with a lot of awards at this year's ceremony.

Hamnet (not reviewed)
Writer/director Chloé Zhao (nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay alongside co-writer Maggie O'Farrell) gets back to her Oscar-worthy skills for the first time since 2020's Nomadland (after the unfortunate detour into the MCU with Eternals). A story about love, loss, and grief involving William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, the film is most notable for the performances of its two leads, Jessie Buckley (nominated for Best Actress) and Paul Mescal.

Marty Supreme
There was no other movie this year, or maybe even this century, like Marty Supreme. Directed and co-written by Josh Safdie (nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay alongside co-writer Ronald Bronstein), the film is an almost continuous blast of pure energy for 2 ½ hours. So many different things happen over the course of the film that the story defies conventional narratives. At its center is the fast-talking, powerhouse performance by star Timothée Chalamet (nominated for Best Actor), who cements his status as his generation’s movie star one year after playing the polar opposite role of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. Look for the film to be a strong contender in the inaugural Best Casting category, as Safdie fills the film with non-actors who are crucial to the film's success.

One Battle After Another
Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson (nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay) has an acclaimed career going back 30 years, but has yet to actually win an Oscar. That will change this year, as One Battle After Another is one of the favorites to win Best Picture thanks to Anderson's stellar filmmaking, as well as multiple great performances that earned the film four acting nominations (Leonardo DiCaprio for Best Actor, Teyana Taylor for Best Supporting Actress, and Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn for Best Supporting Actor). Add in a story with a very timely political critique (that's getting more relevant by the day) and you have the recipe for a big winner on Oscar night.

The Secret Agent (not reviewed)
No foreign country has quite the influence on the Oscars as Brazil, which for the second straight year has gotten one of its films nominated for both Best International Feature Film and Best Picture. Written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, the film is anchored by the performance of Wagner Moura (nominated for Best Actor) as a technology expert in the late 1970s who flees from a mysterious past to try to find peace in his hometown.

Sentimental Value (not reviewed)
For the third year in a row, two international films made the cut in the Best Picture race (but whither It Was Just an Accident?). Directed and co-written by Joachim Trier (nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay alongside co-writer Eskil Vogt), the film is tied for the most acting nominations this year, earning nods for Renate Reinsve for Best Actress, Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas for Best Supporting Actress, and Stellan Skarsgård for Best Supporting Actor.

Sinners
It takes a special kind of filmmaker to make movies that are both popular and Oscar-worthy, and writer/director Ryan Coogler (nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay) has done it again, seven years after helming the Oscar-winning Black Panther. Both a tribute to Black music history and a gnarly vampire movie, the film is led by Michael B. Jordan (nominated for Best Actor) in dual roles as twins Smoke and Stack. With a story infused with all manner of subtext and a bunch of great supporting performances, including Best Supporting Actress nominee Wunmi Mosaku, the film demonstrates Coogler's great filmmaking abilities that should keep him in demand for years to come. Amazingly, there was only one category for which it was eligible in which it did not receive a nomination.

Train Dreams (not reviewed)
The second Netflix movie this year to be nominated, Train Dreams is a contemplative film about a logger (played by Joel Edgerton) in early 20th century America who tries to adapt to a rapidly-changing world. Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for the script by director Clint Bentley and co-writer Greg Kwedar, the film is most notable for the work done by Adolpho Veloso (nominated for Best Cinematography), who showcases the Pacific Northwest in all its glory.

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