Hilltop Hoods, A.B. Original, Elsy Wameyo @ Entertainment Centre, Adelaide 24/9/2022
Hometown heroes The Hilltop Hoods returned to familiar territory finishing their Show Business Tour at a sold-out Adelaide Entertainment Centre. The show had been sold out for ages and was one of the hottest tickets in town. It is great to see a packed house at the Entertainment Centre absolutely bustling and another example of live music being back in a big way.
Opening act Elsy Wameyo is fast emerging as a super talent and looked right at home on the big stage. Elsy packed a lot in to her short set which featured songs from her recent EP release Nilotic with stand outs for me being Sulwe and River Nile. A.B. Original played a powerful set with an important message pointing the spotlight on racism, national identity and disenfranchisement. As Trials stated “A.B. Original by name, Aboriginal by nature”.
Their set was full of absolute bangers including King Billy Cokebottle, 2 Black 2 Strong and Dead In A Minute. Two stand outs was the Triple J Like A Version cover of Paul Kelly’s Dumb Things which featured Marlon and January 26 which saw a guest cameo from Ben Marwe from awesome Adelaide band Bad//Dreems. There was plenty of talent on stage with Mo’Ju on guitar and DJ Total Eclipse spinning the grooves in the band and keeping the good time vibes happening in the changeover between acts.
As the lights dropped the atmosphere was fever pitch as The Hilltop Hoods hit the stage opening with Leave Me Lonely. The opener had everything as the tour film rolled and streamers were fired out over the crowd making for quite the spectacle. The set list was literally back to back hits with Chase The Feeling and Nosebleed Section appearing early in their set. MC Pressure and MC Suffa covered plenty of territory on the stage clocking up more than ten thousand steps for the day with DJ Debris on the decks up on an elevated platform lit with LED HTH logo. Local singer Nyassa was fantastic on backing vocals coming in to her own on 1955.
New single Show Business was great as was A Whole Days Night. Hilltop Hoods set their standards high and as MC Suffa acknowledged that “if you fuck up on stage” you have to do twenty push ups to which he did. It is hard to believe that it has been three years since the last show here and MC Pressure acknowledged that saying that they missed not being able to play in front of their hometown crowd. The hits kept coming with I Love It, Won’t Let You Down, Clark Griswold and Exit Sign. The lighting arrangements were stellar in Through The Dark and made even more spectacular when the crowd turn their mobile phone lights on.
There was still plenty more to come with Higher, Counterweight and I’m A Ghost to finish off the main set. The Hoods returned for an encore started with Rattling the Keys to the Kingdom where the audience was encourage to take one item of clothing off and wave it in the air. The final number Cosby Sweater was epic turning in to one big monster jam with A.B. Original and Elsy Wameyo returning to the stage to join in and big the Show Business Tour to a close.
Live Review By Rob Lyon