Adelaide trio Hilltop Hoods as popular as ever

Fresh from performing alongside Billie Eilish and Eminem, the Hilltop Hoods are thinking bigger, bolder and global with their latest tour.

You can count the Australian acts who have played the country’s biggest arenas in the past decade on two hands and perhaps a few toes.

Keith Urban, John Farnham, Cold Chisel, Powderfinger, Kylie Minogue, 5 Seconds of Summer, Flume, The Wiggles and Delta Goodrem are among the homegrown stars who have filled the same venues sold out by Pink, Robbie Williams and Katy Perry.

It remains a benchmark of next level success for an Australian act to book a national arena run of concerts and history-making hip hop heroes Hilltop Hoods have just announced their second one with the Great Expanse tour in August.

After that run, Matt Lambert (Suffa), Daniel Smith (Pressure) and Barry Francis (Debris) will take the tour to the world, albeit on a smaller scale.

“What we put on here is so big now. If we took the big show overseas, we would have to sell all of our houses to be able to afford it,” Lambert says.

Adelaide hip-hip trio Hilltop Hoods: (L-R) Matt Lambert (MC Suffa), Baz Francis (DJ Debris) and Dan Smith (MC Pressure). Picture: Hollie Adams/The Australian

Three years after they performed with orchestras for more than 50,000 fans on the Drinking With The Sun, Walking Under Stars Restrung tour, the Adelaide trio remain one of the biggest acts in Australia.

The Great Expanse was their sixth album to reach no. 1, setting a new record for the most chart topping records for any Australian group.

They received a rapturous reception as openers for Eminem on his stadium tour in February and drew one of the biggest crowds, next to Billie Eilish of course, at the recent Groovin’ The Moo festival.

Yet for all of the platinum and gold plaques, the millions of albums and singles sold, hundreds of millions of streams, the trophy cabinet chockers with awards and all of those sold-out signs posted on venues, they remain somewhat the outliers of the mainstream Australian music industry.

Maintaining that status, the classic Australian underdog made good, is all right by the trio more than 15 years after their song The Nosebleed Section significantly elevated Australian hip hop on to the pop charts.

“We definitely don’t feel as much of an outsider as we used to. We used to feel almost like some kind of novelty,” Lambert says.

Groovin The Moo, Wayville. Picture: Joseph Mayers

“I think there are less battle lines drawn between genres now as there were when we first started to play festivals.

“We’ve been knocking around for so long that at the Groovin’ The Moo shows we knew half the bands playing, half the tour managers and half the stage crew.”

Another classic Australian measure of the perception versus reality of their success is thrown up by those they grew up with in Adelaide.

There are some who imagine the trio are splashing cash on mansions and yachts.

Then there are others who haven’t followed their illustrious chart-topping, festival-headlining career who wonder if they are making a decent quid.

“Other people we grew up with and haven’t followed our music will ask if we make an OK living off it. Like ‘Are you OK?’,” Smith says.

The Hilltop Hoods are one of those rare acts whose new stuff is as popular as their old stuff.

All three singles released thus far from The Great Expanse — Clark Griswold featuring Adrian Eagle, Leave Me Lonely and Exit Sign featuring Ecca Vandal and Illy — have waved the Aussie flag on the ARIA charts in the streaming era when only a handful of local artists

can make it into the top 50 and get anywhere near the numbers of international chart stars such as Khalid and Billie Eilish.

The Hilltop Hoods are one of those rare acts whose new stuff is as popular as their old stuff. Picture: Joseph Mayers

They were pleasantly surprised to find plenty of Eilish’s dedicated teen following not only singing along to those recent hits at the Groovin’ The Moo shows but also to the much, much older Nosebleed Section when they performed before her set.

Among their much younger fans bouncing side of stage in their oversized headphones at the Adelaide stop on the festival were three of their children, Lambert’s daughter and Smith’s youngest boys.

They posted a video of the three little ones rocking out, with Lambert joking it was the first gig Ari, who turns three in July, hasn’t fallen asleep at after the first song.

A proud Smith said of his sons’ participation: “I won’t lie, I watched that video for an hour.”

While their offspring may still be working on their hip hop moves, their dads exhibit a visceral, energising physicality on stage which exemplifies the adage that a life lived in music can indeed defy the ravages of age.

The forty something men spend their time on stage — 50 minutes or an hour for a festival set, 90 minutes at their own headlining concerts, in perpetual motion.

Whether they are running the breadth of the stage or achieving the kind of air one would expect of Olympic high jumpers, watching the Hoods perform is both infectious and enervating.

The Hilltop Hoods have played the country’s biggest arenas. Picture: Joseph Mayers

Lambert and Smith work out enough to keep in shape, the former joking that he doesn’t want to sport a dad bod on stage.

And watching these natural comedians run through callisthenics and breathing warm ups backstage is as entertaining, and amusing, as they are both on and off stage.

They have suffered for their art. Smith recalls a couple of torn calf muscles and twisted knees mid-set while Lambert most recently found himself sans mic and on the floor of the stage during their Canberra set for Groovin The Moo.

“He threw himself (like a) starfish down on the stage and I’m thinking ‘We’ve lost Matt, he’s had a heart attack, it’s all over,” Smith recalls.

His best mate quickly responds: “I love that was your first thought, not, ‘how’s my dear friend Matt?’

And in keeping with their inimitable comedic double act, Smith rejoins: “I’m thinking ‘How am I going to afford my mortgage? Guess I’m a solo artist now. Wow, the album is gonna go no. 1 again’.”

Regardless of prevailing trends or outsider status, you can bet Hilltop Hoods have plenty of no. 1s and aching great heights on stage in their future.

The Great Expanse tour kicks off at Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne on August 10 and then heads to Adelaide Entertainment Centre on August 17, Riverstage, Brisbane on August 24, Qudos Bank Arena on August 31 and RAC Arena, Perth on September 7.

Tickets on sale Monday from 10am.

Originally published as Adelaide trio Hilltop Hoods as popular as ever