Into It. Over It. @ The TLA with TWIABP&IANLATD and More.
Text by Emily Scott. Images by Erin Marhefka.
Yellow shadows and blue light cast onto Evan Weiss’ face as he played for the crowd at the Theater of Living Arts last weekend. The lead singer and guitarist for Into It. Over It. has spent the last five weeks on his national tour with The World Is A Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, The Sidekicks and Pinegrove.
The evening was kicked off at 7 p.m. sharp with North Jersey-natives Pinegrove. The four-piece indie rock group quickly went from playing basement shows to national tours since signing to Run for Cover Records this past October. Hall told the Sunday night crowd that this was the largest stage and crowd the band had played for to date. Since then, Pinegrove has released two albums titled Everything So Far (quite literally) and their most recent LP, Cardinal.
Lead singer Evan Hall explores mixed emotions and feelings throughout his songwriting. On “Cadmium,” a track off of Cardinal, the singer exposes the complexities of sharing sentiments. In an article from the Fader, Hall explained the song was an inspiration from the book “I Sent You This Cadmium Red” by John Berger and John Christie. Sporting his own band’s merchandise and an AOL pin, Hall sings with full force “I send you this cadmium red, one for every layer I shed.”
Hall’s twang-like voice is met with complex string picking from lead guitarist Josh Marre and classic rock riffs, which gives the band an “alternative country” sound. Pinegrove has mostly always been Evan Hall and drummer Zack Levine. With his latest lineup including Marre and bassist David Mitchell, the group has seemed to find their sound, sonically and introspectively.
Ohio-based group The Sidekicks proceeded with a powerful punch from racing bass lines on “Hell Is Warm,” from their latest album “Runners In The Nerved World.” Singer-guitarist Steve Ciolek isn’t afraid to mix his falsetto harmonies with psychedelic guitar parts.
For their closing track, the four-piece rock group brought on Evan Weiss who joked that he wanted to play with “The Greatest Rock ‘N Roll Band in America.” The band covered nineties punk track “People Who Died” by The Jim Carroll Band.
TWIABP&IANLATD is a collective of friends and ever-changing members. For this tour, they weighed in as an eight-person band.
Originally from Connecticut, TWIABP released their third full-length “Harmlessness” back in September, which explores several themes from revenge to inner honesty. “January 10, 2014” focuses on the inner battles stemming from Diana, the Hunter of Bus Drivers: a female vigilante who murdered two bus drivers in 2013 as a response to two decades of rape and homicides of women in Juarez, Mexico.
“But, don’t you quiver. I am an instrument. I am revenge. I am several women.” Synthesizer player and vocalist Katie Shanholtzer-Dvorak sang to vocalist David Bello. Throughout the track, the band mixes ambient guitar riffs with thrashing fills– something that usually may be complex for a seven-piece band, but this group cohesively works together.
Evan Weiss’ voice pierced the air as he closed the evening’s show. The Chicago-based band played several tracks from their month-old release, “Standards.” The set opened with the single from the new album, “No EQ,” which is cymbal and fill heavy, with drone-like guitar parts–it’s one large complex sound, but it is something that comes naturally with self-aware Weiss.
The Cherry Hill-native played several old tracks, fitting enough for his temporary return home to the Philadelphia-area. Weiss discussed his reasoning behind moving to Chicago in 2008 with his then-girlfriend to pursue their art. With that, he proceeded to play “Pinky Swear” from his compilation album titled 52 Weeks.
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 
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