QUDOS Bank Arena, Sydney
Saturday 31 August 2019
When midway through your arena show you ask the crowd to raise their left hand, then wave it from side to side, and the bloke in the last row with his son are there totally with you, you know that you have won the crowd over.
Hilltop Hoods’ Sydney show last Saturday was a reaffirming of what I saw three and a half years ago on their Restrung tour – Aussie Hip Hop reaching arena level in this country. I opened my review back then with “Aussie Hip Hop + Symphony Orchestra = Sold Out Arena”. There’s no Orchestra in tow this time round, but with possibly their most accomplished release to tour behind, it was packed to the rafters here at Qudos tonight.
With ‘The Great Expanse’ strings teasing us into the show, the curtains drop, smoke machines erupt, and we are hit with the keyboard intro to ‘Chase That Feeling’. For the next couple of hours, we all had a ball.
The setlist was substantial, 19 tracks that covered all albums though it was noticeable that the band’s two most recent releases were focused on – 2014’s Walking Under Stars, and the newly released The Great Expanse. Highlights were many – the opening trio of ‘Chase That Feeling’, ‘Leave Me Lonely’ and ‘Nosebleed Section’ gave us little choice but to rise from our seats, the middle trio of new tracks ‘Clark Griswold’, ‘Exit Sign’ and ‘Be Yourself’ highlighted just how good their current album is, and ‘The Hard Road’ appeared late in the set and is still a great song 13 years on.
Throughout the course of the night, we had a flash of pyro, a dusting of confetti, and a number of surprise special guests. Montaigne reprised her Restrung appearance on ‘1955’, and ‘Exit Sign’ had Illy and Ecca Vandal adding vocals. The night closed with Briggs and Shadow dropping verses through ‘Cosby Sweater’, with pyro, confetti and some smoke for good measure. There’s 16000 fists pumping in Qudos Bank Arena, and it’s all in the name of the Hoods.
The Great Expanse tour and The Hilltop Hoods exceeded all expectations. Their most recent release is their most realised, and translates effortlessly onto a large stage. There would be not one unhappy punter here tonight.
Reviewer : Catherine Shelvey
Photographer : Kevin Bull
