Monotonix – The Brundnell Social Club, Leeds 08/11/08

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8pm, and already the Brudnell was pretty damn busy as The Velvet Orchestra took to the stage. Despite having been in the venue for the whole day filming a video for ‘These Children’, they pushed through fatigue and put in a storming set. Singer Leemun was swaying between mania and nausea throughout, but still delivered his explosive and impossibly high pitched vocals with ease and grace. The rest of the band provided solid backing despite being knackered, and having a session bassist who had learnt all their songs that same morning! The Velvet Orchestra also had a large fanbase standing right at the front singing along, so one guesses it won’t be long until T.V.O. are headlining nights like this, such is the quality of their music.

Next up were Deathqunt, who managed to convert a whole crowd of students and musos with their epic prog-funk jams. One guitarist (with a gift for using a pitch shift pedal), one saxophonist (with a couple of modified kids toys by his side) and one of the most technically impressive drummers combined to make 30 minutes of hypnotic jazzy breakdowns and grooves, which had the audience nodding their heads from start to finish. Even when the music unweaved and untangled itself into a brainless mess of random squeaks and smashes, Deathqunt kept it all together, musical ambition matched perfectly to their abilities on their instruments.

Chicken Hawk were the main support for tonight, and instantly earned the bragging rights to one main thing…having one of the worst names ever. Not really fitting for their genre really. Their music was, well, like Limp Bizkit without the vocals, riff after riff after riff. Okay, so maybe it was a bit heavier than Limp Bizkit, but they seemed to go down the best when they wholeheartedly ripped off Wes Borland rather than trying to go progressive and challenging. The songs were good if a bit forgettable, let down slightly by the fact one guitarist had a wireless guitar system and wanted everyone to KNOW it. He walked around the venue a couple of times, to little effect or interest from those watching from the back. Bit tacky really.

After the Hawk finished, there was a palpable change in mood in the venue. People began to start whispering to each other, and concentrating tentatively on a gentleman sporting a red ringmaster jacket and the best moustache ever, who was pacing around, eyeing up people and objects. It was admittedly, quite intimidating. The gentleman in question was the singer of Monotonix, who has been known to set things, and even people on fire in previous gigs. Whether this is truth or merely hearsay, it seemed, would become apparent as soon as Monotonix took the stage.

Nearly half an hours worth of setting up later, the three members of Monotonix walked casually out. The drummer was wearing nothing aside a pair of boots and red pants with ‘Wisconsin’ branded across his arse, and the singer had long since lost his red jacket in favour of a purple vest and trousers combination. The band started playing, and the singer dashed to the back room, and brought out a ladder. He beckoned the crowd to come forwards (everyone was hanging back, shy and fearful of a possible flaming) and hold it for him, and then took a giant jump and clambered on top. Then the guitarist chimed in with an almighty riff, and the words spilled forth. Like a priest preaching to the unwashed masses, the singer had ultimate control over his newly found flock from the start, and within 5 minutes everyone had gathered at the front to get a glimpse of this band in action. Raw energy was flying out in bucketloads, it was clear from the start that Monotonix are a live band above anything else, and everyone in the close vicinity was feeling the music, shaking their heads and moving their bodies in loose, hippy-esque rolls and turns. This musical plague grew and spread, infecting row after row of listener until instead of a normal band vs crowd setup, there was a circle of audience surrounding Monotonix, jumping, dropping and cavorting in time to their beats and licks. The singer was climbing over people, onto the drummer, giving the crowd stools and toms and then using them as a human drum riser, beating the tom to within an inch of its life as people clapped along. Animal energy and passion had clearly overtaken him, as he rolled around on the floor almost in orgasm, and dragging a poor girl into a boy-girl-boy sandwich of dry humping with himself and the drummer. Then, on cue, all three members of Monotonix fell flat on the floor, much to the confusion of the crowd. A hushed guitar line kept the crowd active, until the singer screamed and threw himself and his band back up into the rock world again. Seemingly not satisfied with their position in the room, Monotonix decamped first to the other side of the room, and then outside for a percussion jam involving many audience members. Everyone was smiling and clapping, the amount of positivity in the air easily overruled the chilliness of the freezing Leeds air. Once the band had changed places for the final time, we found ourselves back inside the venue, dragging a piece of carpet over the drummer, and being encouraged to make mystical hand gestures, and to spit on him and the carpet as a surreal symbol of disrespect. Then, as one, the audience brought the drummer ‘back to life’, and another freak-out session occurred, before the singer threw his drumsticks in the air and shouted ‘THANK YOU GOODNIGHT’. And just like that, it was all over.

Monotonix are the best live band I’ve seen all year. The amount of people (me included) who were giving the band hugs, applause and praise was incredible. I even found myself saying “Thank you so much!” to the singer and the drummer (couldn’t find the guitarist sadly). I then thought to myself: “Wait, I just THANKED a band? I’ve never done that. Compliment yes, thanked no!”. But watching Monotonix live MAKES you grateful. It’s one of the most incredible live performances ever, and by the end of it all you can do is smile like a kid at Christmas, and talk to complete strangers about how fucking excellent they were. I don’t know if another band can top that performance, even the heavyweights of the U.K. live scene. The bar has well and truly been set for years to come. If any of you get a chance to see Monotonix, please heed my words and go and see them. Your minds will well and truly be blown.

Monotonix photograph by Ryan Muir. Taken at Noise Pop ’08.