To celebrate the release day of the band’s third album Raspberry Moon, Hotline TNT performed at Rough Trade Below, the new event space-slash-record store at 30 Rockefeller Center. Given the room’s small size and minimal setup, Rough Trade Below is probably best suited to intimate, acoustic performances from artists. Hotline TNT did not opt for that approach. The full band–founder Will Anderson, guitarist Lucky Hunter, bassist Haylen Trammel, and drummer Mike Ralston–played with the full band setup: volume up, guitars as loud as ever. Not bad for a show at an office.

Hotline TNT was previously the sole project of Anderson, who wrote and recorded previous albums Nineteen in Love and Cartwheel on his own. Raspberry Moon reintroduces Hotline TNT as a full band, complete with sing-along choruses (“Julia’s War”) and songs co-written by the group (“Break Right”). Playing it live, Anderson shared his frontman duties with bassist Haylen Trammel, who also took center stage. As the band continues to promote and tour Raspberry Moon, it’ll be fascinating to watch as the dynamics shift into something even more communal and shared.

Raspberry Moon is, unsurprisingly to anyone who has been following Hotline TNT, another excellent offering of gauzy, gritty rock music. It’s music best heard coming out of an amp, not a speaker. It’s for rocking out, and there’s potentially no one better filling that niche right now. Just like the rest of their catalog, Raspberry Moon shines when it’s live, seeing and feeling the feedback and layers of guitar. For many of the fans present, live is the ideal way–even the only way– to hear the record in full for the first time. The band ran through the entirety of the new material, with Anderson noting after “Letter to Heaven,” “That was Side A.” Even on a small stage with no lighting or frivolities, Hotline TNT plays a kickass rock show. I’d expect nothing less.

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