When I first began reading accounts of performances by Ami Shalev and his band, Monotonix, I found myself wondering if any of it could possibly be true. Breathless odes splattered around the Internet talk of flaming drum-sets (and people), flying garbage cans, sweat and blood and occasional police interventions. The band has allegedly been banned from performing at most clubs in its Israeli hometown of Tel Aviv.
Earlier this month, Portland Metblogger Geoff Kleinman took a stab at recounting a Monotonix show that he described as “so outrageously amazing that, after it’s over, you begin to doubt if it actually happened.”
“Flying through the air, lead singer Ami Shalev crowd surfs as he sings, pausing only to climb up to a high ledge on the ceiling of the club,” wrote Kleinman. “A trash can is bounced around, water is flying through the air. The hi-hat is kicked over and promptly reset. The guitarist leaps up onto the stage and then jumps back off. Nothing in the room is still. After a few songs the band picks up their instruments and moves them further to the back of the club and the circle of people follow….
“A few songs later they’re heading towards the door. Stretched way past the end of their amp cables, so they unplug, carry their instruments outside where Ami climbs a tree, moons everyone and makes a speech. The drum is lifted with the drummer on top and he bangs on it. The concert ends in a street side celebration of music.”
Could it be true? YouTube offers further evidence: A drumset set afire at a show in Tennessee, insane crowd-surfing in Texas, a street take-over in Toronto. Here’s an extended clip, shot at this year’s Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle, from a show that was ultimately shut down because it got out of control:
The videos mostly suck; and the music – in its live form, anyway — is worse. Yet both only serve to amplify the sense that a Monotonix show promises an experience unlike anything you’ve ever seen at a rock ‘n’ roll show.
Even Shalev has a hard time explaining what inspires the insanity that ensues when he gets in front of a crowd.
“The whole thing with fire and moving the drums and all these things, it’s kind of an improvise,” Shalev says, his Israeli accent thick as bong tar. “We get to the show and we never know how it’s going to be ended. We just get the vibe from the room. Sometimes it’s fire, sometimes it’s trash and liquid and drum surfing and going outside into the street. It just depends on what happens during the show.”
Monotonix will perform in Missoula at the KBGA Birthday Bash this Friday, Sept. 26, at the Badlander. Tickets are $5, available in advance at Ear Candy Music and KBGA College Radio, in the University Center (this show will almost definitely sell out, if it hasn’t already). Monotonix will be joined for the show by Portland’s the Bugs, Austin’s Hooch Dupree & the Trapdoor Band, and Missoula’s own Vera and Wartime Blues.
17 responses so far ↓
1 Joe Nickell // Sep 25, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Doh! Wrote this post but forgot to publish it….Hope anyone who came looking for the video links after the column ran in the paper weren’t disappointed.
2 Monotonix // Sep 26, 2008 at 12:48 pm
An anonymous tipster passed this old video of Joe Nickell along to us this morning. Looks like he had a bad experience once and it may explain his aversion to the performance…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueh_1PeJhaQ&feature=related
By the way, have a happy birthday Joe! Enjoy the party!
Joe Nickell responds: Bwahahaha….Yep, fire in enclosed spaces scares the crap outta me. Good thing you’ve never seen this.
3 Peter Langton // Sep 26, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Joe Nickell is like the NARC in highschool who nobody likes. Nice article ASS!!!
Joe Nickell replies: Huh? I was asked by the show’s local organizers and the band’s PR flak to write about the show. If that makes me a narc, well, I guess I’m guilty. As to being in high school: this bald spot would REALLY look stupid on a 16-year old.
4 Nichole // Sep 27, 2008 at 2:20 pm
What I think Mr. Langton is trying to say, Joe, is that it would have been great to have an article that focused on the real A&E issue at hand, (which is what we were really asking you to write about) the fact that here in Missoula, KBGA college radio has been providing top-shelf, independent, non-commercial, volunteer run, University based radio programming for the community for 12 years!! Look around Joe, can anyone else say that? That’s the story. That there are some passionate people right here, over at UC Room 208 working hard to provide something very special and unique to Missoula. We throw a party every year to celebrate one more successful year, and that’s the news. Your choice to highlight the band’s reputation for fire use during their performance was un-cool. There were so many cooler angles you could have taken. For a minute, you could have checked out the other great bands on the bill as well. Just cuz they don’t incite riots from time to time doesn’t mean they’re for the birds. You took what could have been an opportunity to highlight something positive and turned it into a shit show. All said, the show went off with out a hitch and KBGA’s damn proud of our twelve years. We’re also extra thankful to everyone who came out last night and had a great time in support of something we all love very deeply, our one and only college radio station, KBGA.
5 Chris Banks // Sep 29, 2008 at 8:26 am
god you guys, what’s your deal? i thought Joe’s story was awesome it totally made me want to see the band. do you seriously think “birthday party” is “cooler” i sure don’t. get a life!
6 Colin Hickey // Sep 29, 2008 at 8:36 am
I think people should get off Joe’s back. Guess what a band starting a riot and setting drums on fire is news. Joe works for a newspaper. Like the wise man once said any press is good press. I bet that by Joe writing this article more people went to that show to see the insanity. If you’re in a band that has a shocking stage act I’m pretty sure you do it to get press why else would you set your drums on fire. By the way Peter who were you in High school with all your mature name calling. I would rather be the nerd than the asshole.
7 Nichole // Sep 29, 2008 at 8:48 am
You missed the point Chris.
8 Nichole // Sep 29, 2008 at 9:03 am
Yes, Monotonix is totally insane, they light shit on fire from time to time… and yeah, that’s newsworthy. What I’m asking Joe and Chris to wrap their heads around is that idea that yeah, it’s just a birthday party, but it’s also a celebration for a community organization that’s providing something unique and has been solidly, run entirely by volunteers, for 12 years. That’s newsworthy too, and it was completely skipped.
9 Joe Nickell // Sep 29, 2008 at 9:13 am
Thanks Chris and Colin. For the record, you, Niki, sent me a press release that asked for coverage, and that focused pretty much entirely on the bands playing at the show (and that prominently pushed Monotonix foremost). Separately, the band’s PR agent sent me no fewer than five pleas for coverage, all of which included a link to the Spin article about the band that prominently focuses on — !!! — fire and other assorted wildness at their shows. They talk about how cool it all is. I honestly was trying to channel some of that excitement, but I guess I failed in your eyes since you apparently read it as a negative or inflammatory (doh!) article.
Meantime, you want me to have “checked out the other great bands on the bill”? I guess you missed the long part of my column in the paper (I forgot to post it online) about another great band on the bill, Wartime Blues. I didn’t have space or time to talk about anything else beyond that. The entire column in the paper was taken up with the KBGA party’s bands.
It sounds like you want it both ways: You want me to write about the bands, you don’t want me to write about the bands.
I’m sorry but I agree with Chris particularly on this: “Twelfth birthday party” doesn’t really make the cut as news, no matter how great KBGA is — and make no mistake, I love the station and all it does (My wife is the former program director; I’ve spent some harrowing time at the broadcasting console; and my car only has two stations programmed into the radio, and one is KBGA). But except in truly exceptional circumstances, we don’t write stories about anybody’s 12th birthday party — not individual people, not businesses, not community non-profits. That could be an institutionalized mistake; but then again, if we were to write about the birthdays of all the great organizations in town, we would hardly do anything else, I suspect.
And anyway, like I said before, you pretty much didn’t push that angle with me when you promoted the show. I’m sorry if I missed a real story there.
10 Nichole // Sep 29, 2008 at 9:33 am
My white flag is up. We operate from two totally different perspectives, two totally different pages. No press is bad press, I get that. The show was great and we’re thankful to everyone who came out to help celebrate KBGA and all the great bands. We’re also thankful for all the coverage and hype leading up to the event. *exhausted*
11 Joe Nickell // Sep 29, 2008 at 9:46 am
Ironically, Niki, I’ve never felt that we operate from totally different perspectives. Well, maybe different perspectives, but not different “sides” of the local scene. That’s the frustration that I have with this repeated conflict that seems to rise up whenever I write about something you care about. You’re working hard to build and support a self-sustaining and vibrant local scene. Whether you recognize it or not, that’s exactly what I’m working for as well. It’s frustrating that you never seem to see that, and it’s truly baffling to me how it happens. All I can do is to keep trying my best, I suppose.
12 Nichole // Sep 29, 2008 at 10:43 am
Equally baffled.
13 Colin Hickey // Sep 29, 2008 at 11:17 am
I think you both do great things to support local music. Group hug.
14 MONOTONIX Wreak Havoc at KBGA’s Birthday Bash | The Webs of Treb Day Cobb // Sep 29, 2008 at 1:56 pm
[...] show.” I thought Nickells actually gave a well-conducted preview of what was to come, but the article is now somewhat infamous, as intentionally or not, it clued in the fire department and city that [...]
15 Travis Morss // Oct 1, 2008 at 11:13 am
Hello All. This is well after the fact but I find it necessary to come in defense of Miss Payton. KBGA appreciates all of the publicity that Joe gave the band headlining this years B-Bash. The stress level of our staff was heighten when we thought we might have to cancel one of our major money makers for the year. I know I thought it was in contrast to Joe’s article, (I might be wrong but something tells me The Fire Marshal is up with the music scene☺). Knowing that we had to lower the number of tickets sold to 250 from over 700 last year was a huge blow. I know I am a bit bias and I know that I share the same view as Niki but we had already put in months of work and had already made guarantees. So you can understand how we felt when we got the news less than 24 hours before the show. I however understand the angle taken for the article, Monotonix is absolutely insane and I do think people went because of the article. I know as a staffer we just wished there was a little more push for the KBGA aspect. I do have a question for Chris and Joe both; if the Entertainer doesn’t feel that Birthday Bash is news worthy why did The Missoulian feel that it was front-page news last year? Betsy Cohen wrote a great front-page story “Everyone’s Airwaves: UM Station Marks 11 Years of Programming” Monday September 10th, 2007. In a town as diverse as Missoula it can be overwhelming to cover all of the fantastic arts and I know the Missoulian does its best, this is just a point of view from this side of the fence. No harm now B-Bash was a success and we hope the Entertainer continues to cover KBGA events.
16 Joe Nickell // Oct 1, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Hi Travis, thanks for checking in with a well-measured response. You bring up several good points.
Regarding your first point, I don’t know the reality — I’ve not spoken to the fire marshall or any other official directly about this — but it’s my understanding that their letter was dated prior to the publication of my column. That could have been a typo on their part; it’s also possible that I was misinformed on this point, since I didn’t see the letter myself. But it appears they may have known about it without my “help.”
In any event I hope it’s self-evident that I don’t write stories in the paper in order to “tip off” public officials. I write stories in the paper in hopes of interesting and informing people about things happening in town.
I honestly, perhaps naively, didn’t imagine for a minute that this particular column would be viewed negatively by anyone — the show’s organizers, the city, etc. Aside from a couple of negative words about the band’s music and the Youtube videos (which I intended to use to point out that the reasons to see this band aren’t musical, but rather for the performance), the article is fairly fawning, it seems to me. That was my intent. I find the band fascinating.
As to the question about why we didn’t write another story like last year’s, I would hope the answer is self-evident but perhaps not: We don’t generally write the same story twice — especially within a year — unless there are substantive new developments. That statement isn’t always held to an absolute policy, but it’s generally the case.
Looking back at the Missoulian’s library (not all online; we have a separate system in the building), I see more than two dozen stories that have been published about KBGA since the station’s founding (and that’s just a rough count as I dig through more than 110 references to the station that have appeared, in some form, in the paper). I daresay most volunteer organizations in Missoula haven’t gotten that much coverage in their first 12 years of existence; and only KUFM appears to have gotten more coverage among radio stations, commercial or otherwise.
That said, if we ever miss a news story, it hurts. So by all means, let us know if you feel like there’s a new tale to tell from your haunts in the UC.
Thanks again.
17 Travis Morss // Oct 1, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Writing about it was one thing, I think I was a little insulted by the question of B-Bash being newsworthy or not when clearly it was last year.
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