Look around the crowd attending the Jonas Brothers concert at 1st Mariner Arena tonight. Chances are that some of the fans will be more than 5 feet tall and are watching their cholesterol. They might not even have children in tow.
It's true that the boy band composed of three teenage brothers from New Jersey appeals primarily to prepubescent girls. The median age at a Jonas Brothers concert is probably about 12. But there are a number of certified adults - people old enough to legally vote and drink - who are willing to declare, in public, that they are followers of the newest kids on the block.
"I'm afraid that I have to admit that I'm a fan of the Jonas Brothers," says Andrea Burkert, 39, of Fulton, who likes to joke that her 10-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son are the "beards" that allow her to attend JB concerts without losing face.
"Their tunes are really catchy. I embarrass my kids by humming their songs around the house. The Jonas Brothers already are big, and they're going to be huge."
Misty Capps, 37, of Frederick will attend the concert with her 7-year-old daughter, Rachel. Capps, a pacemaker specialist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, hopes to buy a Jonas Brothers T-shirt she can wear under her scrubs.
"I started watching them with my daughter on the Disney Channel," Capps said. "But I didn't buy tickets for the concert until I started to like their music. I told my husband that Rachel wanted to go to the concert. He said, 'No, you want to go.' He got me there."
What inspires an otherwise mature, responsible adult to mingle with a bunch of shrieking prepubescents?
Laura Dam, senior editor of People magazine, thinks that nostalgia is part of the attraction.
"We were talking about this in the office just the other day," she says. "One of my colleagues is in her late 20s, and she says that her friends of the same age are obsessed with the Jonas Brothers. Maybe it's just a way to relive their youths, to remember what it felt like when they were in high school and had a crush on the members of a boy band. I grew up in the '80s, and I loved Duran Duran. When the original five members reunited a few years ago, I was thrilled."
In addition, the Jonas Brothers are perceived as more authentic than similar groups. For starters, 15-year-old Nick, 18-year-old Joe and 20-year-old Kevin Jonas really are brothers. They play their own instruments and write their own melodies and lyrics.
