NEW YORK’S HOTLINE TNT CROSS THE POND FOR EXPLOSIVE LONDON HEADLINE

LONDON, THE DOME 24/04/2024 | By Heather Collier

Reigning from across the pond, ascending New York rock band Hotline TNT made their long-awaited London return last week with a sold out-show at The Dome in Tufnell Park. Supported by The Strongest Tool and Bloody Death, the Brooklyn five-piece stood out like a sore thumb with their relentless wall of sound, offering up a barrage of distorted, tumultuous guitar that somehow evolves into the end credits of a coming-of-age film.

Right off the bat, they’re visibly American, as if the trucker hats and moustaches weren’t a dead giveaway. As you watch them on stage, you feel as if you’ve been picked up and placed elsewhere by mistake, somewhere familiar but not entirely, like a memory that’s only half intact. Every song is seemingly a true story, a faded vignette of relationships, both romantic and platonic. Will Anderson’s heartbreak is amplified in a scruffy, 90’s fog, his sugary vocal melodies just about cutting through.

Kicking things off with a white-hot intro to ‘Protocol’, the band go on to perform tracks from their sophomore album Cartwheel and 2021 record Nineteen In Love. Its never-ending build-up keeps the crowd on tenterhooks, rearing to go at any moment. Although there is a fair bit of crossover, each track is somehow instantly recognisable beneath the heavy layers of fuzz, including the emotional ‘I Thought You’d Change’.

Perplexed by the sight of some new faces, it becomes clear that the band’s lineup is continually changing, a revolving door of musicians, with vocalist and founder Anderson being one of the few constants. Much like their sound, each guitarist dominates the foreground of the stage like an impenetrable wall, eliminating the concept of a frontman, and inadvertently concealing the ghost of a drummer behind them. The band have made it no secret that they had no intention of recording any drums on the record, solely using GarageBand to emulate the percussion and other sounds needed. Anderson has dubbed the band as ‘anti-gear’, using zero pedals, with zero mention of the types of amps used. Hearing the live versions of each track, the low growls, the bending in and out of tune and Anderson’s distinctive drone, all paired with transient lighting and a prickly atmosphere, creates a different experience entirely.

The group tend to hold their cards close to their chest, with the origins of their name still sealed in a take-it-to-the-grave oath. There’s an element of mystery surrounding them that’s somewhat of a rarity nowadays, something they are acutely aware of. ‘This is the most we’ve ever talked on stage’ Anderson quips, having barely strung a sentence together as the four of them tune up. Despite the tight-lipped intervals, Anderson’s vocal delivery is pained and heartfelt, with him often deliberately changing some of the names and details in songs during live shows to protect the anonymity of those who have been written about.

What began as a DIY project has suddenly snowballed into something much bigger. Their sound is very much out there now, moving and shaping others through a life of its own. Starting out as a word-of-mouth band that would dart between Midwestern pockets of the U.S., the quintet was happy enough to play at sticky-floored dive bars and coastal shanty towns. Now, they find themselves in the midst of a thriving UK and European tour thanks to the major buzz generated online this past year.

Fast forward to today, they have inevitably had to wave goodbye to that sense of undergroundness. It’s pretty easy to stumble across a Reddit rabbit-hole or two centred around the group, with ‘fans’ shouting into the abyss about the ‘good old days’ of Anderson’s previous project, Vancouver-based duo Weed. Many of them desperately attempt to disentangle the group’s motives and sound, a somewhat pointless pursuit. If it wasn’t completely obvious by Anderson’s matter-of-fact lyricism and stony on-stage demeanour, he likes to do things on his own terms, and nothing is going to change that, not even a major record deal under the wing of Jack White.

Watch the music video for ‘Protocol’

It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to assume that like many music projects now, Hotline TNT are beginning to abandon the idea of genre altogether. To simply pigeonhole them as a ‘shoegaze band’ is to disregard all of the work they have done up to this point, much like ‘indie’ is used to describe everyone with a MUBI subscription.

By the time us Brits have loosened up and finished thrashing around the room, Anderson takes the time to thank us, admitting “You remind us of home”. With our hearts beating out of our chests, anyone can see this is a far cry from a headphones band. You either love them, or you don’t, and that’s actually a pretty solid place to be. Now in the early stages of recording their third album, this is a sure sign that Hotline TNT are no passing fad.