“They had [a] big celebrity pre-Oscar party event, and we swarmed on it,” explains 18-year-old Joe Jonas. “We met all these different celebrities and Kate Beckinsale was one of them and of course we were like, ‘Oh, wow!’ … Then, like a week later, after we Googled her, like, 1,000 times, we find that she says something about us saying that she thinks we’re hot guys. We’re like, ‘Whoa!'”
But superstar status came calling, Joe Jonas says, only after the band signed with the Disney-owned Hollywood Records, which released its self-titled 2007 sophomore CD.
“There was definitely a season of worrying before we got signed to Hollywood Records,” he admits. “Then, right when we got signed, it just kind of took off. ‘Year 3000’ was played on the Disney Channel right away, and we had so many more hits to our MySpace site.”
Soon, the Jonas Brothers nabbed an opening act spot on Miley Cyrus‘ uber-popular “Best of Both Worlds” tour, and a platinum CD followed. Now, they’re headlining and selling out concerts, including Friday’s Patriot Center gig. All the commotion has plunged Joe, Kevin and Nick into a mad-rush “Hard Day’s Night” lifestyle.
“[The fans] can be crazy trying to get at you sometimes,” Joe explains. “Like, we saw fans running on the highway as our bus is driving. They’re running from the venue … trying to chase our bus.”
The music itself is a mélange of clean-cut pop-punk that works best when the group is being snappy (like on the punkified “SOS“) rather then sappy (like on the mushy ballad “When You Look Me in the Eyes“). The Jonases are closer to Hanson than they are to pre-fab boy bands, since they write many of their own songs and play their own instruments. They also claim Elvis Costello as an influence and have worked with Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne.
They also caused a mini media frenzy by announcing they’ve taken to wearing “purity rings.” As such, they’ve revived the old Britney Spears-Jessica Simpson marketing ploy of putting the focus on their sexuality by talking about how they’re not getting any action.
“Yeah, we all wear [the rings],” Jonas says. “It’s something that we all as a band decided we wanted to do. My dad is a minister, and, of course, he asked us if we wanted to be part of it. It was really our choice.”
Guess Kate Beckinsale will just have to wait.
» Patriot Center, George Mason University, 4500 Patriot Circle, Fairfax; with Rooney, Fri., 7 p.m., sold out; 800-551-7328.
Written by Express contributor Tony Sclafani
Photo courtesy Jonny Buzzerio