REVIEW: ALSION WONDERLAND - SCAREHOUSE PROJECT, BRISBANE

With a sophomore album soon on the way, Australia’s most renowned rave queen gave her most DEADicated fans one of the scariest & thrilling festivals of all time. The wonderland scarehouse project was an experience not to miss. Located beyond the black stump in regional Queensland, transport to the venue was provided by blacked out busses with no one knowing their deadly destination.

With other headlining performers such as A$AP FERG, Lido, Quix, Lunice, & Party Favor, there was something to please everyone’s ravebuds. Kicking off the day was Brissy local Kaylah Truth followed by Sydney DJ, Sports both providing some great tech house bass heavy tunes. Great openers. Manu Crooks took to the stage with ambitions to get this party started… pouring a bottle of Hennessey over the mouths of the front row definitely ticked that box. Fresh of his debut EP ‘Mood Forever’, this guy is not to be missed live. At the same time, the Brownies & Lemonade gang kicked off their residency at their dedicated stage. Known for throwing some of the best parties ever in the states, they brought the same go hard or go home attitude to their sets and performances. Carmouflage Rose, Kinder DJs, and Antony & Cleopatra all delivered great dance along sets evidently enjoyed by everyone. After Young Franco dropped his love on us with some crisp vibrant bangers, the four-piece Haiku Hands took the stage with a crowd bouncing performance of singing and dancing that had everyone on their feet.

The next act on the main stage was the surprise highlight of the day for myself and clearly many others with Lunice flaunting his moves all over the stage and our faces. With nothing but a simple laptop and a small mixer on a lectern stand, we were all his people for that hour. His dance moves had the whole crowd going nuts with the stage front mosh pit getting its first use of many for the day. If it’s anything to go by, I had to step out for the final 5 minutes to stop (apparently not broken) nose from bleeding but I’d do it all over again for that set. Luckily, I fitted in with the extravagant costumes of the crowd with lots of fake blood, open wounds and even some having needles through their heads which I’m still not sure was fake or real.

The night only got bigger and better from there. Well known best friend to our headliner, Lido brought along his live set for a crowd capturing performance with lots of percussion and synths for a mental show. Getting too embraced into Lido’s set I missed out on seeing Kiwi duo Sachi however the crowd response to his set was “banger, banger, BANGER!”. Would not make that mistake again. I did however manage to leg it between DANGER and Party Favor to catch both sets. Party Favor certainly did us a favour with his hard-hitting drops from “Bap U” to the Dillon Francis collab “Shut it down” and sneaking some fresh beats such as the Trap x Moombahtoon on acid hit “Bury”. Meanwhile, DANGER brought his blend of Bass heavy scary trap beats that had everyone pumped for a night of scarehouse.

The crowd flocked like seagulls on a hot chip to the main stage about 10-minutes before the end of DANGER’s set to get the best spot for the Traplord himself, A$AP FERG. The crowd was hyped as ever to see one of the biggest rappers in the world come back to Australia. With his second mixtape “Still Striving” only 3 months old, the audience were thrilled to have some fresh rhymes such as “Plain Jane”, “The Mattress (Remix)”, & “East Coast” while also still dropping all time classics “Shabba” & “Work Remix” to everyone’s upmost delight. Ferg’s massive hype never looked like stopping throughout the hour-long set. Once again, I was contained to one stage at this time slot so I missed out on an epic set from QUIX. Fresh of a massive US tour and still releasing fresh bangers including his recent Awolnation “Run Remix” (with local legend What So Not), the crowd described his set as “head ripping, brain melting, and a better trap lord than Ferg”. Huge if true.

After some fresh hip hop beats laid down by Odd Future’s DJ Taco everyone’s attention was drawn to the scarehouse mainstage to see our headlining queen. Alison’s set had been talked about all day with people hoping to hear new unreleased tracks while also wanting the records that turned them into wonderland fans. As her intro started all eyes and ears were fully focused on Alison yet I strongly doubt anyone was prepared for what we we’re about to witness. Straight out on the first drop of an unreleased record there was fire and fireworks galore which kicked off our headliners scariest set every. Everyone was entirely encompassed within the performance for a total hour. Many of her tracks from her debut album “RUN” and her “Calm Down” EP made everyone’s night one to remember. The visual display alongside her new stage set was perfectly set up for the theme of the project and made for a true night to remember.

Alison Wonderland’s Scarehouse Project was truly a success for its first ever unleashing into the world and with a few tickets still left across the country, she is one weapon not to be missed.

Words by James Cooper

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