People sometimes embellish shows, but it is hard to embellish a Monotonix show.
With a passion for performing live, Monotonix is less famous for music and more for leaving audiences with a very distinct understanding that they just experienced chaos to a level no other band can replicate so genuinely.
“They are the most ecstatic and amazing live show of any band I’ve ever seen,” said WOW Hall program manager Calyn Kelly. “I’ve seen them three times and am more excited for that show than any other.”
Started five years ago in Tel Aviv, Israel, Ami Shalev (vocals), Yonatan Gat (guitar) and Haggi Fershtman (drums) realized quickly that their brand of live music wasn’t received warmly by everyone. In Tel Aviv, Monotonix was infamous for setting up in the middle of venues, playing a set while lighting things on fire, spilling people’s drinks while chasing others and causing complete chaos. Within a year the band left to tour Europe and America, partially to find new places to play and partially because the band was banned from more than half of the music venues in Israel.
“We decided music wasn’t happening so much in Israel. It’s more rocky here, much more,” Shalev said. “Here (in the U.S.) you can go for hundreds of clubs, rocking and rocking, and you find an audience that will cooperate and understand this kind of mayhem.”
The mayhem Shalev refers to is a direct relationship between the crowd and the band. There is no separation between them. Unlike many performers who create an imaginary cage around themselves, Monotonix rips down that cage, removing the audience from the zoo-like experience and throwing them into a safari without any protection. The crowd is fully exposed to the long-hair and barely-clothed madness of the three musicians.
“To tell you the truth, for us, it’s so natural every night to do it. From one perspective, it’s an ordinary activity,” Shalev said. “We go with the flow, this is what keeps the whole thing rocking. It keeps the rocking rocking.”
Shalev sings vocals while running through the crowd knocking down drinks and climbing anything that is climbable. Members of the crowd might be banging their heads to the music, but Shalev actually bangs his head on posts, beams or whatever else. Fershtman plays his drum furiously, but he may not be playing them on the ground, as crowd members often carry him and his drums around the venue. All this goes on as Gat plays guitar riffs while adding his creativity to the chaos.
“It’s playing with the crowd and being in the crowd, and sometimes the crowd takes the show somewhere and we go with it,” Shalev said as he described the transition of an average show moving from inside the venue out into the streets.
After five solid years of wild shows, nothing has changed. Monotonix still approaches every show with the same energy and mayhem it did back in 2005. Unbelievably though, the band keeps this energy as it plays a show almost every day. While some bands go on tour, Monotonix is always touring. In 2009, the band played roughly 250 shows while recording an album and Shalev recovered from a broken leg. It’s not uncommon for the band to do two, three or four shows in a single day.
With such a full schedule, Monotonix has no intentions of slowing down soon. The band will finish 2010 playing as many shows as possible and kick off 2011 touring in connection with the second release of a recording made earlier in 2009.
“We’re still rocking hard,” Shalev said. “We’ll keep on rocking.”
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