Monotonix is the best live band on the planet right now.

No joke.

No, I’m not talking about the band’s musical intricacy, or an ability to rip through Satriani-like scales or even the length of their typical set.

What I’m talking about is entertainment factor — and Monotonix cranks it as high as it goes. The band is pure rock ‘n’ roll. Seeing Monotonix in person, there’s no way to avoid being infected and affected.  Lead singer Ami Shalev is like a mix between Iggy Pop and Borat jacked up on copious amounts of amphetamines — and the pure rock mayhem only escalates from there.

Roughly two Monotonix centered columns ago — seeing as the constantly touring garage rockers seem to show up in Oly at least once a year — I promised myself I wouldn’t go back to reminiscing about the first time I saw the band — at least in print. I’ve done it before, after all — at least twice. Even though the band’s ’07 SXSW performance — from which I still have a scar on my right wrist from beating on the bass drum with my fist — still ranks as the crazies shit I’ve ever seen in a rock ‘n’ roll setting, I’m going to try my best to honor that promise — even with Monotonix scheduled to play Sunday night in Olympia.

(Suffice to say: it was INSANE.)

Besides, chances are you’ve heard about it by now. There’s no good way to keep an act like Monotonix a secret — and, in truth, to do so would be criminal. The band’s penchant for ditching the comfy confines of the stage for the sweat and passion of the crowd, bringing the instruments right along with them and turning the entire room into a sort of rock ‘n’ roll exorcism, is the type of thing legends are made of. If ever there was a band you simply have to see in person, it’s Monotonix.

“(Our first show) was pretty boring and kind of lame. It was old songs we don’t play anymore, and it was on stage. Then we thought if we moved it to the floor, drop the bass and play just guitars instead it would make the show more flexible and fun,” said Monotonix guitarist Yonatan Gat when I interviewed him last year, speaking of the band’s humble, less exciting beginning and its transition into a must-see live spectacle.

“The audience responded by flipping out and going berserk all over us and our musical gear. We loved it and have been doing it almost every day ever since,” continued Gat. “We found out we like to put on a show. We like to wear ladies’ clothes and play with fire.”

Appropriately titled, Monotonix released Where Were You When It Happened? earlier this month — an effort that builds on the band’s debut EP, Body Language. Monotonix will no doubt be packing a bunch of new material into the customary 15-minute set of madness Sunday in Olympia.

Those paying attention can no doubt guess where I’m going with this, but if by chance you happen to miss Monotonix’s show in Olympia this week — the name of the band’s new record is exactly what you’ll be left asking yourself. Where were you when IT happened?

“A man should do what a man should do,” said Shalev from Denver earlier this week, as Monotonix slowly made its way west toward Olympia. “This is our world.”

“Olympia has a unique atmosphere as a city and a great music history,” explains Shalev of why the band seems to always come back.
“People appreciate good music.”

And balls-out craziness… so it works.

[The Big Room (Loft on Cherry), Monotonix with Broken Water, Angelo Spencer, Sunday, Sept. 20, 8 p.m., all ages, $10, 508 Legion Way, Olympia, www.northernolympia.org]