The Jonas Brothers Masterfully Ride the Nostalgia Wave Through Cleveland: Review
In an era where stars of the early 2000s are making roaring comebacks, the Jonas20: Greetings from Your Hometown Tour honors both the band’s past and present with pristine balance.
by Julia Lombardo | Nov. 12, 2025 | 9:00 AM
The Jonas Brothers perform at Rocket Arena. | PHOTOGRAPHED BY JULIA LOMBARDIO
I never thought I’d call nostalgia a trend, but here I am, biting my tongue and calling nostalgia a trend.
If you’re in your early 20s like me, it’s been everywhere in media, to the point where it’s feeling less like a feeling and more like a marketing scheme. TV shows, movies and bands of my childhood and tween years have made some sort of return: iCarly, Victorious, Big Time Rush, Wizards of Waverly Place, Camp Rock, High School Musical and the Jonas Brothers. After splitting up in 2013 to pursue families, acting gigs and solo music projects, the band of brothers announced its return in early 2019, one of the firsts to start this wave of nostalgic reboots.
Since reforming the band, Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas have successfully released three records: Happiness Begins in 2019, The Album in 2023 and Greetings From Your Hometown in 2025. The latter, an homage to the band’s 20-year history, has been selling out stops on a country-spanning arena tour since the summer.
While most of those rebooted franchises of the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon glory days were meant to have an abbreviated shelf life — a show with only a few seasons, for instance — they quickly fell into the void of irrelevancy. The tactic of regurgitating the same narrative understandably grows tiresome (I’m tired, at least), and that fatigue had me skeptical as I made my way to Rocket Arena on Tuesday night.
However, to my surprise, as I took my seat for the Jonas20: Greetings from Your Hometown Tour, I was giddy and slightly sentimental. The Jonas Brothers were my first concert at this same venue in 2009. My mom had scored the tickets for my friends and I on the day of the show. At that time, I pulled together my best denim jeans and matching jacket from Justice, laced up my knock-off Converse and went on to have the best night of my nine-year-old life.
That sort of nostalgia is fragile. If you overdose on the same good thing, you break something that didn’t need fixed. That’s where most shows and artists have missed the mark — except the Jonas Brothers.
Their massive stage is set with a boisterous band featuring backup vocalists, a guitar, saxophone, trumpet, trombone and more. While the payoff is theatrical, it strips away some intimacy and makes the production feel a bit bigger than it needs to be. Nonetheless, a healthy mix of new and old songs in a jam-packed setlist flows seamlessly. New songs maintain the cadence and integrity of an iconic batch of originals, including “S.O.S,” “Year 3000,” “Burnin’ Up,” (which prompts a surreal and raspy “red dress!” to echo through the crowd of 20,000 fans) and even a surprise acoustic version of “Fly With Me.”
Many of the band’s new lyrics tell the same story as these juvenile deep cuts, but the boys are older than they were in 2005. Sentimental ballads like “Little Bird” from their 2023 album are an ode to that, shedding light on each boy’s experience of becoming “girl dads.” As parents with their young kids flash on the screen throughout the song’s performance, it’s clear that many of the longest standing fans can still relate to the music.
“Sucker” dominated with an extra groovy appeal. As a blueprint from the early days of the JoBros comeback, it asserted that their grown, playfully romantic sound would not be compromised or too closely replicated, so as to maintain the specialty of those songs that made them famous so many years ago.
This was sustained with hits from the newest album, like “Love Me To Heaven,” which opened the show. The song’s celebratory energy was contagious as people screamed the name of their favorite brother and jumped around with flashy, tongue-in-cheek posters: a combination that somehow made this crowd feel stuck in the 2000s.
The boys also partook in their share of blasts from the past by revisiting beloved tunes from their solo and secondary projects, including Nick’s song, “Jealous,” and “Cake by the Ocean” from Joe’s band, DNCE. Kevin took his spotlight to debut a new song, “Changing,” which received a rowdy ovation that left him noticeably emotional. Once considered the “least popular” brother, he’s earning his flowers in the band’s new era.
Even the fourth and youngest Jonas brother, Franklin, was in on the fun. Kicking off the show as an opening act with his band, The Byzantines, Franklin’s folksy, twangy set was a vulnerable display of all the raw talent that runs in the Jonas veins.
Those generations of talent joined forces, as all four brothers gathered with their father, Kevin, for the last song of the night, “When You Look Me In The Eyes.” The boys say their father helped them write the 2007 tune on a piano in their living room in Wyckoff, New Jersey. As the grand instrument was rolled out on the stage for the show’s encore, the bells and whistles were stripped away as they replicated that living-room experience to bring fans into their family — the essence of the tour’s “hometown” motif.
As the lights came on and the crowds dispersed, I realized I spent half the show smiling, feeling whimsical and starstruck. If nostalgia is a trend, then the Jonas Brothers understood the assignment.
Jonas Brothers, Nov. 11 Cleveland Set List:
“Love Me to Heaven”
“Only Human”
“Mirror to the Sky”
“S.O.S.”
“Sucker”
“Little Bird”
“Fly With Me”
“Can’t Have You”
“Hollywood”
“Waffle House”
“Vacation Eyes”
“Celebrate!
“No Time to Talk”
“Cake by the Ocean” (DNCE cover)
“Jealous” (Nick Jonas song)
“What a Man Gotta Do”
“Coming Home This Christmas”
“Like It’s Christmas”
“Backwards”
“Changing” (Kevin Jonas song)
“Lovebug”
“Leave Before You Love Me”
“Year 3000”
“Burnin' Up”
Encore:
“Please Be Mine”
“When You Look Me in the Eyes”
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Julia Lombardo
Julia Lombardo is the editor of Cleveland Magazine’s home and style section and contributes to coverage of arts, culture and dining. She graduated from The Ohio State University in 2023 with an English degree. As both a journalist and poet, she is inspired by stories with creative flair. When she puts down the pen, she enjoys going to concerts, ranking coffee shops and walking aimlessly through wooded trails.
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