'One gig I was spraying blood'

Monotonix are known for their chaotic live shows

It's not often you go to a gig and see a band do something you've never seen before.

When playing London's Garage venue last month Israel's Monotonix began the show by parting the crowd, flooding the floor with beer and sliding down the middle.

During the hour they're 'on stage' they move their equipment to a different corner of the room after each song, hang from the ceiling whilst playing drums and perform from behind the bar.

And, they do this every night.

Live phenomenon

The three-piece - Ami Shalev (vocals), Yonatan Gat (guitar) and Haggai Fershtman (drums) - formed in 2005 have become something of a phenomenon after being banned from many of the venues in their native Tel Aviv.

Their live reputation proceeds them as they travel around the world, having now clocked up around 600 shows.

"It's a rock 'n' roll show," says Yonatan revealing they prepare by drinking as many energy drinks as possible and stripping down to their gym shorts. "But the band and the audience kind of mix a little bit, sometimes you can't tell which one is which."

Monotonic live 'on stage' at London venue The Garage

In the early days, their gigs would frequently be shut down by police.

"We play our song and do different things and people around us react by dancing and kind of letting go. It's a liberating thing."

Their unique brand of interaction means things have the potential to get out of hand.

"Once in Athens, Georgia, this drunken kid threw a steel trash can on my head and it burst open," recalls Yonatan.

"I was spraying blood - there were mirrors all around and I looked at myself and thought I looked like Freddie Kruger."

International popularity

Ironically, with the opportunity to play live limited, they had to leave their country in order to get noticed.

"Israel is really secluded, our neighbours are hostile countries, and people don't really drive to Israel. You have to fly, which makes it harder, especially for the smaller bands to tour," he explains.

"I think that's a part of what makes Israel a little conservative when it comes to how a show should look.

"It's also a different mentality; people think they can tell you how you should do what you do. Anyway, our show was too loud, messy and confrontational for a lot of the venues at home."

Whilst the pictures might tell another story there is more to them than their chaotic live experience.

Their first proper studio album is knowingly entitled Where Were You When It Happened? and is released this month.

A riffy mixture of MC5, Deep Purple and At The Drive-In, the eight tracks were written and recorded in New Orleans and San Francisco.

"It was one of the most intense times of my life," says Yonatan, "which was really hard on the personal life."

"Love, loss of it, fear of loss of it, fear of fearing the loss of it," he says elaborating on the themes of the songs. "Getting blinded by it, tampering with it, suffering from it and having a great time with it."

And the highlight of their helter-skelter journey so far?

"One of the most memorable ones is the first show we ever played, in Tel Aviv. People were going really crazy, we weren't used to that," concludes Yonatan.

"I think that was the vision we had in mind, multiplied by a thousand. That one show gave us a lot of faith in what we did."