Into It. Over It. at Scala

Monday nights weren’t made for rock‘n’roll, or so they say; but a performer worth their salt can make any night feel like a Friday. Back in London for his sixth tour and promoting new album Standards, Into It. Over It., or Evan Thomas Weiss, is clearly glad to be back.

Under the purple lights of the Scala stage, wearing a red-and-black check shirt with high-strung telecaster strapped to his chest, Weiss and his band ramp it up to 11 straight away. Beginning with Anchor, he yells “my blue jeans won’t miss me”, and the crowd is a sea of chanting and waving arms. Weiss never gives it less than 110% and his audience don’t either – the two develop something of a symbiotic relationship as the performance progresses.

The band highlight songs from their new album, offering a wedge of crunchy, up-down-stroke-emo-indie on Who You Are and Vis Major, and switching to sophomore album Intersections for the milder and more swaying Upstate Blues. Weiss bears a passing resemblance to Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, his jerky movements and faux awkwardness giving way, whenever he speaks, to a man who is confident and very pleased to be here.

He is preaching to the converted, of course, and anybody who doesn’t like this quite American brand of guitar pop before they come in won’t like it any better by the end. It is Weiss’ slower numbers that really make one stop and listen, and little quirks like stopping proceedings for a few minutes to tune up onstage (“because they only let us bring one guitar on the plane”) are the kind of DIY indie hallmarks that make them impossible not to love.

They reveal that sincerity is what they’re good at with Connecticut Steps, a song about the love of an individual that blisters along but doesn’t fail to retain bittersweetness in lines like “I remember the sobs in the call about you / And I’m detuned”. Into It. Over It. inform their audience that they have five minutes before “they turn on the lights”, and they know the crowd will fiercely enjoy every second – and why not? After all, so will the band.

Stuart McMillan
Photo: Kayla Surico

For further information about Into It. Over It and future events visit here.

Watch the video for Standards here: