Israeli band Monotonix conquers the world

Haggai Fershtman, drummer for the Israeli punk band Monotonix, has a tremendous amount of faith in drunken hipsters.

At Brooklyn's Siren Music Festival a few weeks ago, he played parts of the band's set while held aloft by the masses, with another group holding his drum in the air as crowd surfers floated by. When questioned about his staunch belief that frail, sunburned Brooklynites wouldn't drop him on the asphalt, Fershtman simply shrugs. "Worry is not part of our lexicon," he says.

Since they started playing together in late 2005 in Tel Aviv, the members of Monotonix have developed a reputation for raucous live shows -- so much so that they claim to have been banned from many of the clubs in their hometown. With venues in their neighborhood closed to them, the band decided to hit the road. Fershtman says they played more than 300 shows around the world in 2006 and 2007.

Monotonix in concert (Photo: Michelle Cable)

Fans who wanted the Monotonix experience outside of the live show, however, were disappointed. While the band toured continually, it never formally released an album. But that's about to change, as the group prepares for the release of "Where Were You When It Happened?" out September 8 on Drag City.

Drag City president Rian Murphy says he first heard about the band's live shows from David Berman of the Silver Jews, and he was impressed enough to offer the band a deal after seeing it play. "I wasn't worried about the live show translating perfectly to the record," he says. "I just wanted a great record. When they turned it in, it was everything I was looking for -- a loud, lively, noisy document."

Reputation for starting fires  

But Murphy is aware that the live show is still the main selling point. "A lot of their sales will occur at the shows," he says. "Our strategy is to schedule them for as many in-store performances as possible. We just have to assure the store owners that they won't set the place on fire."

The band's reputation for starting fires has led to some promoters expressing wariness about booking the group. "I have to assure them that they've stopped lighting the cymbals on fire," says the band's booking agent, Michelle Cable of Panache. The band, she says, "will make accommodations, but the only thing they insist on is playing on the floor. At some clubs, they'll play on the ground and have the audience stand behind them on the stage."

As the band's popularity grows, Cable says she's had to be more creative to make sure the group can still play its signature show while attracting a larger crowd. "I've been working on finding functional venues for them, like warehouses and outdoor spaces," she says. "We got additional security, including someone to guard (guitarist) Yonatan Gat's amp. Otherwise, it's liable to take a crowd-surfing trip."

But neither lofted amps nor crazed crowds seem to scare Monotonix. Lead singer Ami Shalev pulls up his shirt to reveal a large scrape, a souvenir from Siren. "Things happen," he says. "No pain, no gain."