As young children, most of us were probably told not to bang on pots and pans. Good thing the band Hackage didn’t listen.

The group, comprising of four high school friends, banged their way into the hearts of the audience at the House Café Saturday night, capping off an evening of politically-conscious local hip-hop.

One of the members, nicknamed TNT, joked before they started, “We’re a little different from the other bands. Same lyrics though.”

He and his three friends, who were nicknamed County, Knowledge and Kill Will, traded garbage cans, pots and pans while playing fast paced, high energy drum line music, similar to the Broadway show “Stomp.” The band even performed using empty water cooler jugs as bongos.

The crowd received the quartet very well, cheering them on to an improvised encore, because they had quickly run out of composed material. TNT and County kept the audience involved by having them clap along the rhythm.

The sight of a completely engaged audience was a welcome surprise after the lukewarm reception of the two hip-hop acts preceding it, but then again, someone playing a garbage can like a drum would probably draw more attention than a rapper no matter what.

Nonetheless, the acts preceding showcased their talents admirably. The hip-hop trio Diagram of Truth played through their latest and “final” EP, aptly named “The D.O.T. EP v. iii,” which the group was giving away at the show in honor of its release.

With lyrics far away from the stereotypical hip-hop topics, the group came across as earnest and forward-thinking. However, their engagement with the audience left something to be desired.

They were able to grab attention by performing their song “Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee,” off the new EP three times in a row, each time getting faster to show off their vocal dexterity.

Yet by the end of their set, most of the audience seemed to be spending more time chatting amongst themselves, not clapping until the group said “Thank you” after each song.

The group before them, a like-minded hip-hop duo from Elmhurst called Civill Artists , experienced similar troubles with the audience but soldiered on in spite of it.

Like Diagram of Truth, the group focused less on rap stereotypes, even going so far as to “diss” them on one of their songs. Instead of bragging about money and street credibility, they rapped about their artistic credibility, closing out one song with the mantra, “We’ll be artists ‘til infinity.”

Originally, the night had advertised the performance of Dynamite Trio and the Poetic Justice League 4 America.

But after both of those groups cancelled, the most poetry the audience heard, not counting from rap lyrics, came from a young lady introduced as Allison. She performed her own slam poetry compositions in between each of the acts.

Surprisingly, the crowd warmed up to her more so than to the rappers, giving the loudest applause to her last piece about love.