I’m back on the cold, hard east coast now, and write about my last day in Austin with a bit of sadness over leaving SXSW! Yesterday was a great day at the Mess With Texas party, a show with over 10 bands in Waterloo Park on two outdoor stages. I wanted to catch up on sleep and stay out of the sun, after three days of it, I was starting to feel a bit nuts. So, I headed to the park in the early evening and first caught poppy garage rockers, The Thermals (left), from Portland, who are currently touring for their newest album Now We See. Bassist Kathy Foster was so awesome to watch, just swinging her hair and jumping all over stage. They played both old and new stuff and closed with pop punk gem, "No Culture Icons," a personal fave of mine. Everyone was so into their set, that by the end, it was pogoing madness. That is, until some backwards hat-wearing guy next to me spilled a good amount of his 40 oz on my head and harshed my mellow big time. Duh!
However, I fully recovered and was pleased to have beer spilled on me during the next set I caught by Tel Aviv crazies, Monotonix . Read all about the rawk madness after the jump!
So, I had heard a lot about garage rockers, Monotonix, and their insane live show from friends who had seen them in New York. They were rumoured to throw beer, set shit on fire, strip, you know, the typical array of punk antics. But let me tell you, they lived up to and went way beyond their storied reputation. Lead dude, Levi "Ha Haziz" Elvis, was like an Isreali Iggy Pop, telling the audience to fuck off, mooning show-goers and sticking his microphone between his wiggling cheeks, pulling up his body suit like a toddler while swinging from the stage scaffolding. I was in awe.
Pictured above is Elvis, crowd drumming. What a group effort too, by the audience, right? Shalev handed out his drumming stool into the crowd and then that big old drum and then kept the raunchy beat while being help up by the crowd! Definitely my wildest discovery at SXSW, I strongly recommend checking Monotonix while they continue on tour through the US.
