Monotonix are bonkers. There, we’ve said it.
But how so, you ask? Well, in an increasingly sanitized music world where rock bands just don’t seem as down and dirty and plain wild as they used to be, Israeli garage-rockers Monotonix take things back to a visceral level with their live shows, making them just about the most exciting thing out there. Which probably explains why a campaign to bring them back to play in Brighton resulted in this gig at the Volks. Dressing in what can best be described as 1977 basketball chic, and looking like they haven’t washed in a month, the Tel Aviv boys play on the move. That is, they make use of every available nook and cranny of the venue, carrying the drum kit around, playing on the bar, or just thrashing it out in the middle of the crowd. Last time round at the Engine Room, they played part of the set in the gents.
It’s wild, liberating, and massively entertaining, and whether or not you have a fetish for fairly straight-up garage rock, you should certainly check out the band if you have even a passing love of live music, or guitars played with intent. In our dreams we sometimes collect the people who are responsible for the worst malaises of the music industry — you know the types, Simon Cowell, U2, the guy who invented auto-tune — and put them in a room with Monotonix to see who comes out alive. Highly recommended.
