Record-Journal
12-20-2007, 12:24 AM
By Dan Champagne, Record-Journal staff
MERIDEN — For at least one day in December, Santa Claus was not the main draw at Westfield Meriden. And he probably never got a reception this loud.
The Jonas Brothers, a band of three brothers ages 14 to 19, played a free acoustic concert at the mall Wednesday afternoon. Their faithful fans had no problem sleeping in the cold and sitting on a cement floor for hours, waiting to see them. They still had enough energy to scream at the top of their lungs when they saw their favorite band.
The trio stepped onto the stage with frazzled hair and tight jeans at 3:45 p.m. They played four songs. For all the work that went into setting up the show, it lasted just 15 minutes.
“It was soooo worth it,” said Taylor Telmon, a 15-year-old Wethersfield resident. “I don’t care if they only played one song. I would be here to see them.”
Kevin, Nick and Joe Jonas released their debut album in 2006 and have since burst onto the teen music scene thanks in part to a partnership with Disney sensation Hannah Montana, a character played by Miley Cyrus, the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. The brothers were to serve as the opening act for Hannah Montana at the XL Center, formerly the Hartford Civic Center, Wednesday night. There were rumors floating around the mall that Hannah Montana might actually make an appearance in Meriden, but she didn’t.
The crowd of roughly 2,000 people, mostly teenage girls armed with digital cameras and camera phones, packed the barricaded area in front of the stage and spilled out into other parts of the mall. They held up homemade signs expressing their love for their favorite band member. One sign read “Future Mrs. Nick J. He just doesn’t know it.”
Meriden police officers, some of whom requested earplugs from the band’s entourage, tried to keep the crowd from camping out in the stores to get a better view, but a few lucky fans found a spot in the front window of Champs Sports.
Brittany Magruder, a senior at Platt High School, was front and center for the show. She arrived at the mall Tuesday afternoon at about 4 with her friends Nicole Neilson, a Platt senior, and Brianna Sapia, a Platt junior. They stayed in their car for hours and went home to sleep in shifts while others stayed in the parking lot. They were at the front of the line, enclosed in steel barricades, Wednesday morning.
“We are the most die-hard fans,” said Magruder. “We’ve been there with them since the beginning.”
“We did this because they cherish their fans more than any other group so we have to give them 100 percent dedication,” Neilson said. “They appreciate us more than any other band appreciates their fans.”
All three girls said their parents let them stay out of school Wednesday.
Becky Bejinsky, a 14-year-old Milford resident, also stayed overnight in the parking lot, but she didn’t do much sleeping.
“We were much too hyper to sleep,” said Bejinsky, who heard about the concert on the Jonas Brothers’ MySpace page. “We were dancing around the parking lot and going crazy.”
Her mother, Marilyn Bejinsky, joined her in line. She said she was excited to see the band as well.
“Their music is good clean, music,” she said. “There’s not a whole lot you can listen to with a really mixed audience, but they’re really great.”
Jeff Morris, a Meriden resident sitting with his 11-year-old daughter, Jamie, was one of only a handful of men waiting in the line Wednesday morning. He said he couldn’t turn down his daughter’s request.
“It was really about the repercussions,” he said. “I knew that if she heard about this concert and I didn’t take her, I would hear about it every day for the next six months.”
Because tickets to Wednesday night’s Hannah Montana concert were difficult to get, many Jonas Brothers fans found the concert at the mall a perfect alternative. Verizon Wireless sponsored the free show.
Magruder said she didn’t have tickets to Wednesday night’s show, but was still planning on trying to get last-minute tickets somehow.
“When we heard they were coming to Meriden, we figured it was meant to be,” Neilson said.
Becky Bejinsky was one of the lucky ones who was planning to see her favorite band twice in one day. She was able to get tickets to the Hartford show.
When asked how many times she had seen the Jonas Brothers perform, she replied “Sixteen. But that’s just this year.”
dchampagne@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2227
MERIDEN — For at least one day in December, Santa Claus was not the main draw at Westfield Meriden. And he probably never got a reception this loud.
The Jonas Brothers, a band of three brothers ages 14 to 19, played a free acoustic concert at the mall Wednesday afternoon. Their faithful fans had no problem sleeping in the cold and sitting on a cement floor for hours, waiting to see them. They still had enough energy to scream at the top of their lungs when they saw their favorite band.
The trio stepped onto the stage with frazzled hair and tight jeans at 3:45 p.m. They played four songs. For all the work that went into setting up the show, it lasted just 15 minutes.
“It was soooo worth it,” said Taylor Telmon, a 15-year-old Wethersfield resident. “I don’t care if they only played one song. I would be here to see them.”
Kevin, Nick and Joe Jonas released their debut album in 2006 and have since burst onto the teen music scene thanks in part to a partnership with Disney sensation Hannah Montana, a character played by Miley Cyrus, the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. The brothers were to serve as the opening act for Hannah Montana at the XL Center, formerly the Hartford Civic Center, Wednesday night. There were rumors floating around the mall that Hannah Montana might actually make an appearance in Meriden, but she didn’t.
The crowd of roughly 2,000 people, mostly teenage girls armed with digital cameras and camera phones, packed the barricaded area in front of the stage and spilled out into other parts of the mall. They held up homemade signs expressing their love for their favorite band member. One sign read “Future Mrs. Nick J. He just doesn’t know it.”
Meriden police officers, some of whom requested earplugs from the band’s entourage, tried to keep the crowd from camping out in the stores to get a better view, but a few lucky fans found a spot in the front window of Champs Sports.
Brittany Magruder, a senior at Platt High School, was front and center for the show. She arrived at the mall Tuesday afternoon at about 4 with her friends Nicole Neilson, a Platt senior, and Brianna Sapia, a Platt junior. They stayed in their car for hours and went home to sleep in shifts while others stayed in the parking lot. They were at the front of the line, enclosed in steel barricades, Wednesday morning.
“We are the most die-hard fans,” said Magruder. “We’ve been there with them since the beginning.”
“We did this because they cherish their fans more than any other group so we have to give them 100 percent dedication,” Neilson said. “They appreciate us more than any other band appreciates their fans.”
All three girls said their parents let them stay out of school Wednesday.
Becky Bejinsky, a 14-year-old Milford resident, also stayed overnight in the parking lot, but she didn’t do much sleeping.
“We were much too hyper to sleep,” said Bejinsky, who heard about the concert on the Jonas Brothers’ MySpace page. “We were dancing around the parking lot and going crazy.”
Her mother, Marilyn Bejinsky, joined her in line. She said she was excited to see the band as well.
“Their music is good clean, music,” she said. “There’s not a whole lot you can listen to with a really mixed audience, but they’re really great.”
Jeff Morris, a Meriden resident sitting with his 11-year-old daughter, Jamie, was one of only a handful of men waiting in the line Wednesday morning. He said he couldn’t turn down his daughter’s request.
“It was really about the repercussions,” he said. “I knew that if she heard about this concert and I didn’t take her, I would hear about it every day for the next six months.”
Because tickets to Wednesday night’s Hannah Montana concert were difficult to get, many Jonas Brothers fans found the concert at the mall a perfect alternative. Verizon Wireless sponsored the free show.
Magruder said she didn’t have tickets to Wednesday night’s show, but was still planning on trying to get last-minute tickets somehow.
“When we heard they were coming to Meriden, we figured it was meant to be,” Neilson said.
Becky Bejinsky was one of the lucky ones who was planning to see her favorite band twice in one day. She was able to get tickets to the Hartford show.
When asked how many times she had seen the Jonas Brothers perform, she replied “Sixteen. But that’s just this year.”
dchampagne@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2227