Hotline TNT Gets Sweaty In NYC

Photos by Caleb Sugai.

Hotline TNT is a band from New York City that is better than the band from your shitty home town.

Sorry, that was aggressive. I stand behind it, but it was put in a way that was maybe just a bit too strong. I’m just all fired up from the Hotline TNT secret show in New York last week that it’s hard to come down. Or at least I would be if I were able to attend. Unfortunately I was in Los Angeles (I know, and I’m sorry), but our photographer Caleb Sugai attended in our place and snapped away. Why did we choose to send Caleb Sugai? Because on top of being good at photography, Caleb skates. He is very good at skateboarding. About as good at skating as Hotline TNT is at music, and so Caleb is used to being injured, which assured me that he’d be more than willing to take an elbow to the face to get a good photograph (and they are), which is something that I would not trust many other of our music photography staff to endure. Barrier babies, I call them. Used to their fancy press passes and free waters up there right beneath the stage. That wouldn’t suit the attitude and willingness for engagement that Hotline TNT supplied.

Hotline TNT said fuck your stage and your venue, we are going to have a show in the thick, wet heat of an indoor soccer field. And fuck being in one place, we are going to get into the crowd. Also, you know what? Fuck clothes. Fuck clothes!

Some words Caleb texted me about the event:

‘Hot, sweaty, reunion, traditional tattoo festival, venue was a indoor soccer field which somehow made a lot of sense, a lot of people knew all the words, everyone sweated their asses off, diehard fans.’