Review: OMG!! — Jonas Brothers at the Center!!!

From a distance, it sounded as if the Susquehanna Bank Center had been transformed last night into a giant roller coaster. The screaming rose and fell in union, mixing ecstasy, anticipation, and a touch of disbelief. OMG - the Jonas Brothers!

Easily the biggest thing to happen to tween pop since their onetime tour mate Hannah Montana, the Wyckoff, N.J.-raised trio of Nick (15), Joe (19) and Kevin (20) play caffeinated power pop with squeaky-clean lyrics and delivery that's somewhat less so. The homeschooled preachers' sons may wear rings on their fingers to symbolize their commitment to premarital abstinence, but the way they groaned the lyrics of "Burnin' Up" suggested they'd at least given the matter some serious thought. Lest anyone grow confused about their intentions, Joe cleared them up during the spoken interlude to "BB Good": "I don't want to hurt you," he said, straining his voice until it almost broke. "I wanna kiss you!"

With the formidable might of Disney behind it, the Jonas's new album, A Little Bit Longer, was sitting at the top of the charts for the second week running. But unlike their fellow phenom (and Nick's former squeeze) Miley Cyrus, the brothers balance showbiz slickness with a kind of amiable shagginess. Their three-level stage was rimmed with flame as the Jonases rose up on a hydraulic lift; it was like Vegas for 12-year-olds.

But their 90-minute set boasted little in the way of preplanned stagecraft. The closest they got to choreography was when the eight young women in their string section put down their instruments to make a few vaguely coordinated hand gestures. High School Musical it was not. That thrown-together quality took some of the curse off the evening's more crass moments, like the between-set videos that had the Jonases hawking everything from breakfast bars to hybrid SUVs.

A four-piece band led by the band's producer and co-writer, John Taylor, backed them up throughout the night, but they stayed largely in the shadows. Music may be the brothers' métier, but they didn't have to sing or play a note to get the crowd's attention. Hoisted into the air on tiny round platforms, they paused in the middle of "Hello Beautiful" to look out over the crowd, who filled the silence with massive roar. Although they tried to play it cool, the brothers' faces cracked in turn, barely suppressing an incredulous grin. They were flying high.