Jonas Brothers’ crew cut Everett tree

Published 10:41 pm Friday, February 8, 2008

EVERETT — Roadies help out bands on concert tours by handling tasks such as lighting, sound and security.

Add lumberjacking to that mix.

A frustrated crew member for teen heartthrobs Jonas Brothers chopped down a 19-foot-tall blooming pear tree before the band performed this week in Everett on their Look Me in The Eyes tour.

The tree along Hewitt Avenue outside Comcast Arena at Everett Events Center was in the way of a flashy decoy tour bus that is parked outside venues to advertise the siblings’ arrival.

The real bus was safely tucked away in a gated-off area on Broadway.

Andy Rice, who was attending a computer class at the Hansen Conference Center when the tree chopping happened, called the incident appalling yet humorous.

“Of all places to cut down a tree,” he said. “In the Northwest, we’re all tree huggers here.”

Donna Gleisner, chairwoman of Everett’s Tree Committee, saw the bus parked around the corner on Broadway on Tuesday night, but had not heard yet heard about the tree mutilation.

“Weird,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Everett has been a member of the National Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree City USA program for 14 years.

New York City-based M2M Construction, which is promoting Jonas Brothers concerts, did not return calls seeking comment.

Officials at the Everett arena say Jonas Brothers’ tour managers paid $1,250 to replace the tree.

“They got into a little tangle and accidentally took out the tree,” said Tammi Bryant Olson, marketing director for Comcast Arena. “It definitely wasn’t the Jonas Brothers chopping it down, it was very unintentional.”

Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.