Alison Wonderland at Warsaw

Alison Wonderland at Warsaw in Brooklyn

Alison Wonderland stands at 5’1″, wearing massive flatform shoes, knee high socks and an oversized tee with her “AW” logo. The “A”, “W” theme continues in the legs holding up her equipment and at one point, which you can see via my Instagram she throws up the “W” sign as confetti falls. I was front row and center and despite being absolutely blind by the end of it due to my close proximity to the strobe lights I loved every minute of it. After I saw Alison Wonderland recently I walked away with a few mental notes.

After I saw Alison Wonderland recently I walked away with a few mental notes.

Strobe lights are only fun if they aren’t a foot away from your face.
Flatforms. I need them. Where can I get some dope flatforms?
I love Alison Wonderland!

Introducing Alison Wonderland

Now before I go on I should formally introduce you to Alex Sholler, a DJ and producer from Australia better known as Alison Wonderland. Female DJs and producers are nothing new but, like most industries, it’s harder for females to get their rightful moment in the sun.

When I purchased tickets to her show at the end of last year I did so for many reasons. First, her name had been cropping up onto my radar and secondly, after checking out some of her music, I was hooked. I also was curious to see a female DJ perform and discover if there was any difference in attending a show helmed by a female.

Over the years, I’ve seen quite a few male DJs and I was eager to discover if there was any difference in attending a show where the headliner was female.

Was the crowd going to be the same even mix of male and female? Would the same type of people be there? Would the energy be different? Thankfully the energy was different. It was actually quite refreshing to see a woman dominating the stage and controlling the crowd in such a powerful way. (Click to Tweet)

Thankfully the energy was different and despite enjoying the opener, Golden Features’ set, it was quite refreshing. It was energizing to see a woman dominating the stage and controlling the crowd in such a powerful way.

The Performance

She played much longer than anticipated. Her set went over 2 hours and she kept adding mix after mix of old school hip hop and current hits. This was after openers had already played for over 2 hours The people who managed the venue kept nudging her to end her set but she would exclaim “Oh but I have to play this one” and “I just love this f**cking song” as she got to work on another track.

Oh and if you had any questions about her authenticity she answers them with the two triangle shaped screens on each side of the stage. Each screen displays a stream of her mixing each song live.

You get to see her fingers at work and it’s really cool to have that behind the scenes element brought to the fore. Whenever I’ve previously attended a show you usually can see a guy moving around behind his stage setup or behind a laptop but you can’t actually see him mixing live.

In that, Alison Wonderland proves that she’s the real deal. When a girl rushed the stage and made it within inches of her she barely flinched. Several times throughout her set she went towards the crowd and shouted the lyrics along with us. She stood on top of her equipment, owned every inch of the stage and won the devotion of male and female concertgoer alike.

I entered the Warsaw in Brooklyn curious and I left the venue eager to spread the word and a newly minted Alison Wonderland fan.