Words: Alex Nino Gheciu 
Images: Mario Lunardo

The Fuck Yeah Fest rolled into Toronto with middle fingers waving for the first ever-touring version of the LA-based music and comedy showcase. It was a packed house this evening, and while this can partly be credited to the festival’s uber-cool name, the main reason was that the buzz band Monotonix were headlining. The raucous stoner garage trio from Israel turned heads and slackened jaws with their chaotically unhinged performances during this year’s NXNE festival. Droves of freshly converted fans crammed into Sneaky Dee’s tonight in anticipation of more suicidal stage antics.

Unfortunately, the audience first had to swallow two servings of musical hyperslop before getting to the cake. Brooklyn synth-dorks Team Robespierre decided to open the show by ripping off Monotonix’s schtick of forgoing the stage to set up their instruments in the middle of crowd. The only problem was that Team Robespierre had a grievous time getting the crowd to join in. The five piece’s goofy brand of electro-dance was a hard sell to blasé Torontonians. By the fourth song, lead singer Ty Kube resorted to begging the audience to surround the band, and after succeeding, propelled himself into unwelcoming strangers in a futile attempt to incite a dance party. Team Robespierre resembled a boisterous special ed class; the band’s three vocalists yelled incoherently into their mics while hopping around like wounded ducks to ADD addled synth licks and drumbeats. Admittedly, their faux-white boy rapping style was entertaining at first, but the novelty wore off fast. Thankfully, most of their songs didn’t last much longer than two minutes.

During the break some unnamed schmuck made a half-assed attempt at stand up comedy. The deadpan crowd barely reacted to his bone-dry sense of humor, which mostly consisted of reciting Pizza Hut commercials word for word. The comedy portion of the festival was not a complete sham; the following act, Hannibal Buress, was a freakin’ riot. He managed to enchant the crowd with his left field bits about kicking pigeons and exploiting MILFs.

Up next were Brutal Knights, a snotty punk ensemble from Toronto. This band has been praised for standing out amongst other cookie-cutter punk bands by rejecting current trends to recreate Reagan-era hardcore a la Black Flag. With their buzz saw guitars, machine gun drums and venom-laced vocals, the Knights had Black Flag down to a tee. They sounded so much like Black Flag that it made them cookie-cutter. In a poor attempt at originality, lead singer Nick Flanagan dropped his pants and flailed around in his skid marked tighty-whiteys. He then stuffed a sweaty towel into his underwear and subsequently whipped audience members in the face with it. While repulsive on its own, this act was made all the more perturbing my Flanagan’s eerie resemblance to Rowan Atkinson.

Without further ado, Monotonix took the floor, setting up shop in the middle of the crowd. The band clearly has a minimalist ethic: their gear consists of a battered drum kit, a Fender held together by duct tape, and a microphone. Drummer Ran Shimoni commenced the set with a basic beat on the kick drum, snare and ride cymbal. Then guitarist Yonathan Gat joined in with a deranged blues riff. From then on, it was a complete balls-to-the-wall cataclysm. Perhaps in an attempt to one-up Team Robespierre, Monotonix further broke the barrier between band and audience by crowd surfing while continuing to play. Somehow, Shimoni managed to play drums while hoisted in the air with half of his kit, all the while holding a steady beat to guitarist Yonathan Gat’s primal riffing. The synergy between these guys was impeccable; rather than sounding like unpalatable noise, Monotonix’s sprawling, chaotic stoner rock was absolutely mesmerizing. Vocalist Ami Shalev, while sounding something like a Hebrew cross between Ozzy Osbourne and Frank Zappa on record, more closely resembled a wailing hyena live. While Shalev may never make the cut on American Idol, he was nevertheless idolized tonight by adoring fans who didn’t mind being smothered by his soaked, woolly torso.

At one point, the band marched the entire crowd out onto College Street and convinced everyone to sit down on the sidewalk as Shalev stood atop a newspaper stand like a crazed dictator. Shalev then orchestrated a sing-along version of “The Final Countdown,” which culminated in a riotous, Caribana style dance party with Shimoni wailing away on his snare drum. It’s no surprise that these guys were banned from most venues in Tel Aviv; before long Toronto Police Services showed up to shut down this “public disturbance.” That didn’t stop Monotonix; the trio quickly retreated into Sneaky Dee’s to perform one last song, a stomp version of “We Will Rock You.” Shortly after the set, hordes of admirers flocked the merch table to pick up Monotonix CD’s and t-shirts. Rarely does a band enamor an audience like these guys do. They may very well be the next Beatles.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 6:40 pm.