Adelaide natives the Hilltop Hoods have certainly come a long way from where they started. Following 5 previous studio albums, the Hilltop Hoods left their long-time home label and released their 6th album State of Art on their own label of Golden Era Records. Upon the release of their latest 2009 EP Still Standing, the Hoods were welcomed by the loving embraces of Melbourne fans as tickets for the show, just one of many on the tour, were enthusiastically devoured in minutes.

I arrived at Festival Hall around 9:30pm and was ready for the party. Security was taken fairly seriously tonight; I have never been surrounded by so many guards at a gig, and have never had to empty my pocket at the door. After passing through the checkpoints by the door and the entrance to upstairs, I settled myself in a seat on the poorly vacant balcony, eyeing a sign on the wall saying ‘no standing.’ Funnily, I recalled that the last time I watched a show from my seat was when I saw Missy Higgins.

Vents One and DJ Adfu paired up on stage, bouncing back and forth and firing off the opening for Hilltop Hoods. They looked confident and knew exactly how to put on a great show. The intensity of the tunes and lyrics were fierce yet party-friendly, so the crowd went nuts; pumping up and down, and occasionally singing along.

A DJ set threw on a couple of funky tracks by Jay-Z and Kanye West after Vents One and DJ Adfu finished up, and then, starting from the right balcony and spreading throughout the whole venue, the crowd started chanting together for Hilltop Hoods. Following the this unstoppable eruption, the light faded away and a short intro melody rolled in. Hilltop Hoods bounced out and dropped the opening song Super Official – hard. A huge screen behind the decks appeared, displaying fantastic motion graphics synchronised with the tracks in real time, one after another. After a couple of pumping tracks to get everyone in the mood, the vibe was brought down just a bit when it came to Last Confession. Right back in no time, emotions were brought back up to a high point when Pressure and Suffa ripped the room up with a solid a capella rhyme, reminding everyone of hip hop’s original form.

Pressure and Suffa sent out their shout outs to some great influential artists like Jimmy Hendrix and Bob Marley in the middle of the set, then drifting back into the bouncing vibe again. Though the room was tightly packed, the crowd seemed to enjoy the boiling temperature of the dance floor, jumping even higher when classic Hoods track What a Great Night was delivered.

As the show was about to come to an end, the visual works onscreen impressed me even more. Besides from having individual motion graphics for each track, the text ‘Hill,’ ‘A,’ and ‘Top,’ appeared up on the screen, and were placed on the back of the guys’ hoodies when intro of Hillatoppa dropped in. This really got the crowd going, who roared aloud in response.

10 years after they released their first album, Hilltop Hoods have certainly grown up a lot. The determination that has got them to where they are today was apparent in their performance; they brought everything out for their audience and they put on an amazing show.