On Sunday (23 February), the closing night concert for the Superloop Adelaide 500 saw G-Flip, Illy and Hilltop Hoods come together for a night of amazing Australian music.
After a full day in the sun for the majority of the 20,000-strong audience, and with the smell of beer and damp grass wafting through the air as the mosquitoes came out and the sun set behind us, it was time for the Hoods to enter the stage.I’m not embarrassed to say that this is the third time I have attended a Hilltop Hoods concert in Adelaide, and can confidently say that every gig is different and never lacks excitement.
Since they were last on home soil last August for their ‘The Great Expanse’ album tour, they have travelled the world. But it is these shows for their home crowd, with their families standing in the wings, that are the most special.
Switching up the set list since their last appearance, the boys opened with ‘Leave Me Lonely’ complete with streamers shooting into the crowd, which only added to the fanfare. This was closely followed by ‘Chase That Feeling’ and ‘The Nosebleed Section’.
MC Suffa and MC Pressure professed their love for their home town saying: “We’re very proud to be from Adelaide; it’s a beautiful place. . . apart from the fact this is where I live and I drove here tonight and it was really inconvenient,” to which the whole crowd laughed, sharing in his feelings about city traffic in the festival state.
They launched into ‘1955’ as they have at every concert since the song was released in 2016, but this time felt just that little bit more special as the boys looked over to see their kids cheering them on from side stage.
Asking for the lights to hit the crowd so they could see their fans right up the back, they said: “There are so many people back there that we can’t even see, f... that’s like talking to a different country. . . How you going back there New Zealand?” they joked.
In past gigs, the artists they've collaborated with haven’t been able to join them on stage for live shows, but for us last night they pulled out all the stops and were joined on stage by Adrian Eagle for ‘Clark Griswold’ and had their support act Illy as well as Ecca Vandal to dance along with them for ‘Exit Sign’, much to the excitement of the audience and the Hoods alike.
The family affair continued into the night with a celebration of love for MC Pressure’s three sons. The night sky lit up like a Christmas tree as everyone held their phones above their heads and swayed along to ‘Through The Dark’, one of their more heartfelt songs.
'Great Expanse' album favourites ‘Sell It All Run Away’ and ‘Counterweight’ were thrown in the mix too, before they finished with seasoned closer ‘Rattling The Keys To The Kingdom’, in which they yet again asked the audience to remove one item of clothing each and wave it in the air.
Having witnessed this previously without too much success, this time the crowd seemed much more willing to participate, with lots of men taking off their Holden and Ford t-shirts and exposing their glorious tan lines after four days standing trackside.
‘Cosby Sweater’, complete with an epic display from smoke machines, streamers, sparklers and fire closed out the night.
Every concert these guys put on they always give 100 per cent, but tonight they turned it up just one more notch, flooring it on the open air stage and finding themselves in pole position in the eyes of all their home-grown fans.
