To say Monotonix are off the chain doesn’t even begin to do justice to the mayhem that their live shows inspire. Some new word or phrase needs to be invented to describe what happened at the Blender Theater on Saturday night. The Tel Aviv trio were accompanied by a throng of fans who had just attended the band’s earlier show in Williamsburg. The crowd tripled in size as Monotonix set up on the floor—not on the stage.

The anarchy that ensued was part metal, part Gogol Bordello. Frontman Levi “Ha Haziz” (Yomtov) Elvis doused the audience with water. He then dumped a trashcan onto the head of drummer Mordecai, who kept playing without missing a beat. Elvis then crowd surfed in the trashcan. Guitarist Moshe Vegas manned the bass drum, relocated by Elvis to the bar, while Elvis poured water down his bandmate’s shirt. The music never stopped.

Next, Elvis scaled the sound booth and stood on a ledge about twenty feet in the air. He decided not to jump off (probably a smart choice). Instead, like a Pied Piper, he led audience members, carrying the entire drum kit, out the door and into the hallway, where the crowd reformed and bounces refused to let anyone leave the building. Without stopping his drumming, Mordecai joined the rest of his kit in the hall, and Elvis crowd- surfed over him. Meanwhile, guitar riffs continued to rage in the auditorium.

The set cut off after about thirty minutes when recorded music blared out of the PA system, as though to say the band had overstayed their welcome. The band, now standing again on top of the bar, continued to play, and the audience was so charged that they probably would have stayed all night. Even so, the scene ended to make way for the next band in the lineup.

And believe me, nobody wants to follow an act like that.