It’s really hard for me to get excited about seeing shows. It’s not that I’m jaded, but I’ve seen thousands of shows in my life and many of these performances weren’t even vaguely memorable. The barrage of mediocrity has dulled my senses to the point that when somebody tells me their band is playing or that there is a show that I must see, I figure that it is going to suck. And it is not going to suck in some glorious Hoover vacuum cleaner type of way. That type of suckdom I can handle and even enjoy. The serious suck that makes me wince is of the competent albeit totally lifeless and boring variety. Bands play their songs and nothing happens. Eight out of every 10 live performances I have seen fall into this plasma-draining nothingness. Though these types of shows are instantly forgettable the combined weight of hundreds of ho-hum performances takes a toll on your music appreciation.

And then there are the types of shows like the one I saw last Thursday at Gallery Five in Jackson Ward. It was one of those rare performances that will get you through a thousand borefests and will keep you going to see bands. Seeing the Monotonix, Dark Meat and Snack Truck last Thursday made my life better.

I arrived at Gallery 5 just as local instrumental group Snack Truck is hitting the stage. They are aggressively linear with two drummers bashing away in a distinctly Richmond homage to the power of the almighty riff. Their metal tinged compositions left little room for improvisation as each melodic phrase was tightly wound and obviously painstakingly rehearsed. They bashed out their punk-inspired prog rock with conviction and had the good sense to not overstay their welcome.

The shortness of each of the band’s sets that night did all of them a world of good, but the tight performing schedule was especially helpful for Dark Meat, the 17-piece psychedelic rock collective from Athens, Georgia that came on next. Their Butthole Surfers, Ornette Coleman approach to Neil Young classic rock is usually not my cup of tea, but these guys and gals have what most meandering jam bands don’t; they have songs. And damn good ones at that. Though their songs are absurdly long, there was a definite method to the madness. Dark Meat is catchy weirdness with a go fuck yourself attitude. How can you lose?

As good as the other bands were, Monotonix stole the show. These three middle-aged men from Israel put on the single best rock show I’ve seen in many a moon. They are total engagement. For starters, they set up on the floor and immediately plunged head first into the crowd from note one. The sheer physicality of their performance was invigorating as they bashed out sluttish, James Brown mutated rock in the vein of Jesus Lizard and Orange-era Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. At one point, a member of the audience was duck-taped to the drummer and he didn’t miss a beat. The show ended with each member of the band (drummer and drum set included) hoisted atop of the loving crowd as they played their final song. How they kept it all sounding coherent with all the physical activity going on is beyond me. It was truly one of the most amazing live performances I have ever seen.

If only all shows could be this good.

i just read about these guys in Spin.

nice to see richmond pulling some kickass shows.

What Bopst said! There was no time or hand to waste on beer when Monotonix were on. I want to do that again every Thursday night.