TWEEN’ IDOLS

If ever there was such a thing as happy hysteria, this was it.

The tween fans who overran the Jonas Brothers concert at Mohegan Sun Arena Friday were happy. Very, very happy.

How could you tell?

Maybe it was the way their jumping up and down made the metal arena bleachers feel as though they were hit by a Richter-scale-rattling earthquake.

Or maybe it was the way the girls emitted epic squeals every time the Jonases moved. No one can quite do a high-pitched, putting-Mariah-Carey-to-shame scream the way tween girls can, and they created a shiny new definition of cacophony Friday.

At one point, Joe Jonas himself said, “I love the way you guys scream at everything.”

Joe shouldn’t be surprised. The Jonas Brothers are, after all, an official teen pop phenomenon. The trio – brothers Joe, Nick and Kevin – are the reigning kings of Tween Nation.

So what’s the big deal?

We asked Taylor DeNatale, 16, of Woodbridge, who was at her sixth Jonas concert.

”I love their music, but, to be honest, I think Nick is so hot,” she said.

For a second opinion, we went to Kaitlyn Horton, 11, and Amber Nocella, 11, of Lowell, Mass., who teamed up to explain the Jonas appeal: “Their music.” “And they’re cute.”

I think we’ve reached a consensus.

The Jonas Brothers dropped into the Mohegan Sun Arena for three shows this weekend, one on Friday and then two on Saturday. Tickets ran $82 and $92.

Most of the fans were not old enough to be allowed on the casino gaming floor, so they got redirected on their way from the parking garage to the arena.

You sure could recognize the fans on their way to the concert. They were carrying their own Jonas-celebratory signs – including date proposals in the form of “Prom ‘10, Nick?” They were wearing their own Jonas-centric T-shirts; one girl proudly donned one with a picture of Nick that was accompanied by the words “Just Call Me Mrs. Nick Jonas.”

Homemade T-shirts were, in fact, the big fashion statement. Brittany Campbell, a 12-year-old from Waterford who got tearful when she found out she had tickets to the show, worked with her pal Sarah Pacheco to Project-Runway their own T-shirts. They used neon paint so their backs would glow in the dark, and they added elements like the Jonas Brothers’ name, naturally, and the date of the concert, along with their own names.

For more than a few kids, the Jonas gig was their first concert. Such was the case when Deb Osso of East Lyme brought her 7-year-old daughter, Lena, to Friday’s show.

Talking about the concert afterward, Deb Osso figured that 95 percent of the people at the show were girls or parents, and she said, “I was very excited for all the girls who were there. It’s like the teen idol kind of thing.”

She summed up the experience by comparing it to that old credit-card commercial. Concert tickets: $200. Dinner beforehand: $100.

”The smile on my daughter’s face: priceless, you know? My 7-year-old was just in heaven,” she said

“Regional”

Source: TheDay.com