Over It at Logan Sq.

Over It
Logan Square Auditorium, Chicago
Friday, August 25, 2006

Over It are one of those bands who, if you don’t read the Warped Tour roster intently, you aren’t going to know. But years doggedly following pop punk’s trails has brought them a sizable fanbase — and now a major label deal.

Five days after this show, Virgin Records will put Step Outside Yourself in stores, a glossy package of melodic crunch in the vein of Jimmy Eat World and Yellowcard (whose Sean Mackin cameos). What’s alternately impressive and upsetting about their label debut is its fullness. Whether it’s tambourine keeping the buttbeat on “Too Much Information” or the constant underpinning of the power chords with an acoustic guitar, it’s tempting to say producer Mike Green is the one making the statement (he has a writing credit on eight of 13 songs). “Dishonor, Disorder” has a break straight out of Def Leppard’s Hysteria, with swirling guitars layered so densely you’d think the CD would be a quarter-inch thicker.

A gang of Peter Munters and Ryan Ogrens never strip their vocal chords in their repeated themes of alienation, but that’s because they’re looking to join the larger group. When Green’s tactics pay off, they lift the band out of their Warped surroundings (“The Energy”) and reposition Over It entirely as a crossover-marketing wet dream.

Over It open for Amber Pacific and The Audition; Just Surrender and All Time Low also perform.

— Kevin Keegan

Click here to download “My Better Half” from *The Ready Series.

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly