The Hilltop Hoods
Thebarton Theatre
Sat 16 September

Despite the fact that it's only been a few months since their last show, it was never going to be a quiet night when The Hilltop Hoods rolled back into town and one look at the crowd rolling through the Thebby's doors the minute they opened was enough to see how excited they were.

The Funkoars have always put on memorable live shows and are beginning to be rewarded with wider recognition around town - with a new album out recently, it was a great chance to make an impression, which they did. But while their heavily funk-based sound was a no-brainer as a support act, Mystro seemed like an odd-choice - his beats sounding distinctly sparse compared to the acts on either side of him. Perhaps as a result, he spent a lot of time freestyling, both a cappella and over other acts' beats, the murky Thief's Theme probably suiting his style the best of the lot.

It would be wrong to say that the crowd didn't enjoy his set; they showed their appreciation abundantly, but from the moment a grinning Flak stepped onstage, the sound coming from the crowd was simply deafening and it was clear that keeping them hyped wouldn't be hard work for The 'Hoods.

Though they began with The Sentinel and included a number of other tracks from 'The Calling' in their set, the majority of the night was devoted to 'The Hard Road'.

Happily, most of the audience seemed to know the tracks pretty well already. No doubt they were aware that much of the audience wasn't familiar with their early work, but it's disappointing that they seem to have excised much of it from their shows.

The flipside of their success, however, was their consummate professionalism and the ease of their stage manner as they rolled through the set with nary a mishap. There doesn't seem to be much left to chance anymore and the lack of spontaneity was decidedly more obvious because they had played so recently, but despite the fact that their shows have taken on a very similar format recently, the strength of the music still makes them worth seeing.

So, they rolled through everything from the single Clown Prince and the crowd sing-along of Dumb Enough to the lyrical storm of Circuit Breaker and, by the time Debris stepped out from behind the decks for the encore of B-Boy Stance, everyone could agree that even if it wasn't memorable as a show unlike any other, it was certainly a good night thanks to the atmosphere the crowd generated and thanks to the quality act.

Alexis Buxton-Collins
Pic : Anna Milne