Last Friday night Adelaide’s Hilltop Hoods returned home to a hero’s welcome at the Adelaide Showgrounds.
Supported by Thundamentals and K21, the guys inadvertently chose a stellar evening to bring their Cosby Sweater Tour to thousands of South Aussie fans.
The weather was perfect, the venue was outdoors, and Thundamentals and K21 kicked off the gig in supreme form, setting the scene for the darlings of Aussie hip hop, our Hilltop Hoods.
Despite all the perfect ingredients however, the gig lacked the usual flawlessness that die-hard fans have come to expect from the trio.
The guys were in top form, opening with Chase That Feeling from their 2009 release State of the Art; they were accompanied by a horn section, a great light show, adoration of the crowd and boundless energy; but between each song, the lights went off and there was silence until the next number, not for too long, but it did affect the flow somewhat.
While the guys belted out tracks from the past to their present release, Walking Under Stars, momentum peaked and dipped between songs which detracted from the normal perfection fans would know from avidly attending HTH gigs.
With that aside, the guys kept up their energy for each track, encouraging crowd participation, showering us with praise, thanks and affection and proving their worthiness of our love.
Walking Under Stars is arguably the Hoods’ best offering to date and the musicality and production of the record were represented beautifully on Friday night.
Closing with the title track, and possibly the best track of the tour, Cosby Sweater, Suffa donned such a garment and rocked out without dying of heat exhaustion.
The Hilltop Hoods just keep getting better and better, their recordings are different with every release and their production is second to none in Aussie hip-hop.
There was some disappointment that the trio came on at 9pm and finished at 10:25pm, which could possibly be reflective of council rules but it seemed all too short for the state’s favourite home grown talent.
Reviewed by Libby Parker
Twitter: @UpsideNews_Lib