MANSFIELD, Mass. — If there was a thread running through the KISS Concert yesterday at the Tweeter Center, it ran from teen pop sensations The Jonas Brothers in the early evening to the reformed, reborn teen pop sensations The New Kids On the Block at night.

Of course, there were musical differences between the two — The Jonas Brothers ply the kind of anthemic post-emo rock reminiscent of Fall Out Boy or The All-American Rejects, only PG-rated, angst-free and proudly punkless, while the New Kids are — well, the New Kids: the first word in the hip-hop/soul fusion that kids have been buying since the late ’80s. But it was hard not to wonder about a connection yesterday.

“Now it’s official,” said New Kid Donnie Wahlberg of the reunion that was announced Friday in New York on the Today show. The quintet’s home-state return began with a quick medley of “Step By Step,” “Hangin’ Tough” and “You Got It (The Right Stuff),” before launching into their comeback single, “Summertime” — a sweetly lazy slice of synth-soul, though how good an idea it is for them to bank on a song with the word “remember” featured so prominently in the hook remains to be seen.

In all, the New Kids’ trademarks — honeyed vocal harmonies and a choreography that ranges from razor-sharp to appealingly shaggy — are still in place. (And there were plenty of shout-outs to the Celtics, including jerseys and cameos by the Celtic dancers, to keep the hometown connection warm). In keeping with the pop-sampler format of the KISS-108 concerts, they only played 20 minutes — they headline in Boston in the late summer, and how well they’ll fill an entire evening remains to be seen.

The Jonas Brothers made a bigger impression on the teen girls in my section at least, and it was hard not to wonder what would become of them in a few years. There’s nothing harsher than the backlash against an aging teen-pop act — The New Kids could tell them that — and some of the sillier Jonas material (such as “Year 3000”) is ripe for ridicule. But there were solid pop hooks in “That’s Just the Way We Roll” and “Hold On,” which bode well for the group’s eventual staying power. And a couple of hours later, the New Kids proved to the new kids that good bubblegum never loses its flavor.

Of course, there were plenty of other highlights going on at the nine-hour, 17-act concert.

The local favorites Boys Like Girls (drummer John Keefe graduated from high school on the Tweeter Center stage, frontman Martin Johnson explained from the stage) landed the unenviable spot after the New Kids and crashed through it, with revved-up, guitar-heavy, angsty anthems. They tore around the stage with abandon while still nailing three-part harmonies on songs such as “Five Minutes to Midnight,” and “The Great Escape” ended with a Johnson guitar smash. They left the final act, Jamaican dancehall MC Sean Kingston, a crowd that was wrung quite dry, although his new single “There’s Nothing” has a charming roots-reggae lilt.

Natasha Bedingfield once again foiled her pleasant-sounding pipes with unendingly gossamer, limpid material, and unfortunately the new single “Angel” was no exception, though the gospel-intoned “Love Like This” was a nice change.

Maroon 5, looking toot become the Hall and Oates of the 21st century, suffered from sound problems yesterday, but in general their fusion of rock and soul was in good shape, with singer Adam Valentine’s sweet falsetto (think a guileless, white Curtis Mayfield) leading the way.

The find of the early going was Sarah Bareilles — smart, urbane piano-driven pop reminiscent of Carol King, especially on “Morningside” and the bouncy, exuberant “Love Song.” And her solo-piano version of Chirstina Aguilera’s “Genie In a Bottle” took the dance thumper to a Parisian — OK, maybe a Brooklyn — cabaret.

Leona Lewis, winner of the British talent show X Factor, brought luxurious soul to the stage, particularly on the opener “Better in Time” and the hit single “Bleeding Love.” And while Latino pop-rapper Baby Bash’s Lothario bit felt like blatant pop selling-out, “Cyclone” and “What Is It” showed that even a sucker MC can ride a good pop hook. Gavin deGraw remained relentlessly mid-tempo — and Elton John for the Abercrombie & Fitch set.

Some of the other acts were good for the occasional bizarre factor, such as the dance-pop diva Cascada, who drove every song into the dance floor relentlessly — I still can’t tell whether her pounding version of “Because the Night” was the worst or greatest song of the day, but if you’ve heard her hit “Every Time We Touch” you know what this sounds like. And Wyclef Jean’s set was more exhortation than performance, finding time to go into the audience four times (including to pull a guy out of his seat, to climb a light column, to bring a kid to the stage and to munch on an audience member’s pizza) while haphazardly reprising his vocal parts on records such as Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” and his own “The Sweetest Girl.”

rmassimo@projo.com