Music

ARLINGTON – Before our very eyes Kevin, Nick and Joe Jonas have morphed into larger-than-life concert headliners. That was evident during the Westlake-based trio's show Saturday night at Cowboys Stadium. The gig opened the sibling act's 2009 world tour and cemented them as big ticket superstars.

Before a crowd of about 50,000, the Jonas Brothers offered up roughly 100 minutes of songs from three albums, including the just-released "Lines, Vines and Trying Times."

The stage, three octagons stationed smack in the middle of the stadium floor, provided plenty of room for spectacle, from a cool feature that showered ribbons of water shaped as hearts, letters and strings to a crane that extended Kevin and Joe over the audience.

But perhaps the grandest piece of eye-popping scenery was the surprise appearance of teen queen Miley Cyrus during an encore performance of "Before the Storm" with ex-boyfriend Nick Jonas. Everybody went nuts when she emerged to sing the power ballad.

Another memorable moment came when opening act Jordin Sparks of American Idol fame returned to the stage to sing "Battlefield," her new single, with a little help from the JoBros.

Otherwise this shindig belonged to the boys, who were always in control of the proceedings. Kevin and Nick are the multi-instrumentalists of the group. They took to guitars, piano and drums. Joe is the entertainer, the one who made sure to corner the microphone at every turn.

With all three of them, you get an ever-growing array of musical styles. Sure, the gist of the trio is power pop, a radio-friendly mixture of hooks, soaring choruses and total feel-good vibes. For that we rejoiced in "BB Good," "Play My Music," "SOS" and "That's Just the Way We Roll."

But for a little variety, the whimsical, folky number "Lovebug" deserves mention, as does the soulful "Much Better" and "Gotta Find You," which was all acoustic guitars, violins and quiet charm.

A couple of others to note: A lively cover of Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" and Nick's piano-fortified anthem, "A Little Bit Longer."

Sparks could have easily been onstage a little longer. She was impressive, what with her strong pipes and earthy, spunky demeanor. She came off genuine singing her signature tunes "Tattoo," "No Air" and during the effervescent "Young and in Love."

New York City band Honor Society, who had the plum slot of first performers on this trek, were plenty fun doing four songs in the popular, fast-paced, catchy-crunchy sound of the day.