The Tel Aviv-based hard rock band Monotonix is supported by their fans in a way that few other bands are: physically.
At a normal Monotonix concert (if “normal” is a word that can apply), singer Ami Shalev jumps into the waiting audience and is caught and held aloft by the crowd. Soon, guitarist Yonatan Gat and drummer Haggai Fershtman will join him–after the audience takes Fershtman’s drums and passes them around, so that the drummer can keep rhythm while crowd-surfing. You can watch a video of a Monotonix concert below, just be forewarned that it’s very loud, very raucous.
Monotonix was founded because its members were bored of the local music scene and wanted to stir things up. Evidently, they did. Soon, the band was banned from most of the clubs in Tel Aviv (they routinely set fire to their own instruments), and they started touring extensively through Europe and America.
The band’s second American album, Not Yet, comes out this week. It’s raucous and wild and loud, and sounds surprisingly like ’80s American hard rock with a dash of Israeli flamboyance. It’s probably not what you’d expect. But then again, neither is anything else about this band.
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