When Green Day took to the stage for the Grey Cup halftime show a year ago, it was with a frenetic presence and pace that was aimed straight for the hearts of Gen-X and Millenial fans. All were thrilled to be able to relive a few moments of their fading youth, head-banging away to decades of pop-punk hits.
This year’s show was instead aimed at a different demographic, slightly younger and skewing more female. The Jonas Brothers performed eight songs with a softer edge than what we saw last season.
Opening with ‘What a Man Gotta Do,’ with all three brothers isolated, lighting on the field and the stage behind them, the production gave an immediate impression of the more toned-down set that was to come.
They quickly moved to ‘Waffle House,’ a song about coming together with the people you love. This is a fitting tribute to Grey Cup week, when fans from all teams gather to celebrate at the Grand National Drunk, with nary a fight or arrest in sight.
Then, it was time to remind us that the band had broken up for a while as Nick and Joe each performed hits from their solo careers.
Nick crooned about how ‘Jealous’ he can get in a relationship. As a Stampeder fan who saw his team miss the playoffs for the first time in decades while watching several of their former players win Toronto a Grey Cup instead, this one hit home!
Joe, formerly of DNCE, then belted out ‘Cake By The Ocean,’ a fitting tune as that is how most Canadians view the city of Vancouver. Well, maybe if the title had been ‘Quinoa by the Ocean,’ it would have been even more fitting.
After those two songs, there was a brief shot of Kevin Jonas playing guitar, but as he hasn’t released a solo album, it was back to ensemble songs with an anthem that the CFL may disagree with! ‘Leave Before You Love Me’ isn’t exactly the message the league is hoping to convey. Instead, it booked the band to draw in fans who hadn’t even known about the league in the first place.
As an aside, my wife is a middle school teacher and when she texted her young colleagues, all of whom have paid money to see this band in the past, not one of them was aware the band was currently on CTV as the halftime show. The three responses my wife received when texting her friends to ask if they were watching were: “No, should I be?”, “Is there like a concert or a show or something going on?” and finally, “We don’t have cable.”
Back to the show, the sixth song in the set, ‘Burning Up,’ speaks to a desire to be with someone so badly that it feels like you are slipping into lava. Maybe this song is better saved for the first day of free agency rather than the season’s final game.
A potent reminder for fans of the losing team came next with the song ‘Only Human.’ Mistakes are inevitable in games like this, which came to pass with four interceptions by Zach Collaros.
Finally, they finished with their biggest hit, ‘Sucker.’ The song again conveys the way that CFL fans feel about their league and their game. We are all suckers for the greatest version of football on earth. We’d go anywhere blindly and on any road (near a stadium) you can find us.
While the show may not have been aimed at me, it certainly shouldn’t be panned. The Jonas Brothers delivered exactly what was expected.
