Live Review: Alison Wonderland, Wave Racer

A warehouse gig at a secret location is Alison Wonderland's vision for this tour, and this is exactly what it delivers.

Wave Racer, a trap DJ/producer from Sydney who has been getting a fair bit of airplay on triple j recently, plays originals you would expect, as well as other trap. Near the end of his set Wave moves towards chilled house, which seems fairly fitting given the environment, yet doesn't quite sound right as the system is definitely set up for bass, something these house tunes are lacking. Not that the crowd care, as they get their glow sticks out for Disclosure's When A Fire Starts To Burn.

After minutes of people chanting “Alison”, Alison Wonderland pulls out her first tune and the bass goes right through, rattling ribcages. Any previous muddiness of the sound system has gone completely; in fact the at times ear-piercing high melodies common in trap are much more pleasant. At the start of her set, Alison dances between trap, footwork and other heavily bass-oriented genres, with the crowd singing any song they know, which is usually on high rotation on triple j, ZHU's Faded for example. This seems to be the gel that sticks Wonderland's energy to the crowd's, as they don't appear to be dancing too readily to anything not on the radio. Actually, as Wonderland goes heavier on the instrumental side of trap the audience seems to thin.

By this point anyone left can't sustain solid dancing and can only dance for a few bars after the drop, which is probably why Alison drops tunes so quickly, a remix of Sage The Gemini's Gas Pedal gets a brief play to the enjoyment of the crowd. Alison throws in some Lorde, which, as expected, gets the crowd riled up once more, before ending the night with some big-room house. The fish-eye lens view of the mixer projected either side of the decks gives another dimension to the show, as do the lights and other effects, culminating in a sensory treat.