Hotline TNT's excellent new album Raspberry Moon is one of the best of the year and they celebrated it but playing it for their hometown crowd in the round at (le) Poisson Rouge.
Guitar music is having a bit of a moment, if you will. More and more bands seem to be not only cropping up, but they're playing to big crowds and they're filling up festival posters around the globe. One of the best guitar bands doing it right now, is Hotline TNT. The Brooklyn quartet's latest record, Raspberry Moon, follows their sophomore effort and is another leading example of modern shoegaze and their live show detonates with incendiary results that helps confirm they're at the top of the game as well. They enhanced this experience when they set up in the round for a hometown gig at (le) Poisson Rouge and proceeded to blow the roof off the place with their crushing anthems of explosive riffs and soaring melodies that are maximized by their amps getting turned up to 11. Wafting up huge waves of sound from the moment they plugged in their gear, the band began to sway together and soon enough things burst apart and they tore into "The Scene," with it's MBV vibes pumping as those ragged guitars buzzed along with driving force. Waving their guitars and bass through the air, the band conjured up huge swells of sound and when they ripped into "Protocol," they sped things up enough to get the crowd moving and the energy really started to flow. "It's time to put your phones away and have some fun. Live music isn't for Instagram and live music isn't for Spotify. Let's go!" called out lead singer Will Anderson and he was constantly hyping up the crowd to enjoy the moment and get down with the songs. There was little resistance and with each tune, things picked up. The band was loose and excited, ready to melt faces and change up their routine by having the audience surround them. "We don't have a lot of room up here, so we're gonna need you to make up for us out there, ok?" he asked at another moment. The rush of "Out of Town" was pure and unfiltered, raging and full of life which helped propel other songs to match its speed and intensity. People cheered back and when they invited the namesake of the song "Julia's War," things sparked and the room erupted. As they hit the "na na na" moment, the crowd took over the vocals and to hear it from every corner of the room was surreal and it was clear that everyone was in a shared amazement. One of the peaks of the night, the song transcended and for that moment it felt like Hotline could be the best rock band on the planet (I know that's some tough competition, but this song absolutely ruled). Cruising right along, the band plowed on, full steam ahead, their walls of sound crashing with thunderous impact that felt like it was shaking the building to its core. Throughout the night, it was awesome to be able to look across the stage and see other parts of the crowd also living in the moment and loving every second of it. Watching the band play to as many sides of the room as possible was also a great aspect of the night and made it so no matter what they were doing, everyone was catching it all in slightly different ways. "I Thought You'd Change" was another massive track with ragged guitars pummeling the room, but no matter where you looked, there were pits of joy surrounding the band at every angle. "We can't really leave the stage I guess. You're all around us. How many more songs should we do? One? Two? Three?" asked bass player Haylen Trammel and with each number the roar of the crowd amplified. "Ok, but we're gonna need three times the energy if we're doing three more songs" Anderson negotiated back. It wasn't a hard request and things escalated quickly as things finally cracked and enough of the room began to really move around to the music. By the time they hit us with "Lawyers in Love" someone had been picked up and began to crowd surf the circumference of the stage, something I've never seen before, and the band seemed ecstatic. The band encouraged as much of a circle pit around the stage as well and people pushed their way through for the final number of the night while nearly everyone else jumped around with the utmost euphoria. There are plenty of bands bringing shoegaze back, but few are doing it like Hotline and for this one, they were out to prove just why they're the ones to beat. A phenomenal night from one of the best bands out there today.
Set list:
01 "The Scene"
02 "Slider"
03 "Protocol"
04 "Son in law"
05 "Tye die"
06 "Candle"
07 "Letter to Heaven"
08 "Out of Town"
09 "Julia's War"
10 "Stampede"
11 "I Thought You'd Change"
12 "Where U Been?"
13 "History Channel"
14 "Lawyers in Love"
15 "Trinity"
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