Meet the Iggy Pop of Israel

Israeli rock band Monotonix: Pyromaniac-friendly

Middle Eastern punk band Monotonix have been called “the most exciting live band in rock & roll” and are getting rave reviews from traditional media in the US for their live shows. There’s only one problem – the band is next to unknown in their native Israel.

So, Monotonix were just the subject of a glowing profile from Reuters’ Cortney Harding. Reuters is routinely criticized for an alleged anti-Israel bias, and here is a piece that basically calls the Tel Aviv trio the best thing since sliced bread:

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.

So when the Reuters story (which, coincidentally, was republished in the Kuwait Times) hit the Israeli papers, you’d expect love for the hometown kids done good. But, no, commentators ranged from calling them “no talent trash” to a bad example for the Jewish people. No love there.

I’ve had the opportunity to see Monotonix live a few times back home in NYC and these guys are the best thing to happen to live music in the last five years. A bunch of crazy, hairy rockers setting fire to the stage, crowdsurfing at every opportunity and playing the bastard son of 70s stoner rock and early 80s punk? Genius. Although Israel has a number of other punk bands including The Genders and The Dead Rabinz who play semi-regularly, Monotonix are indeed persona non-grata in Tel Aviv clubs. Ironically, the most of-the-moment rock band in the entire country finds themselves unable to play in their homeland. Fans in Europe and North America, however, are in luck. Watch this snippet of their live set and thank me later. Just do it.