Watching Yonatan Gat and his band perform will blow your mind. The former Monotonix member’s live show leans heavily on improvisation and borders on performance art, incorporating signature lighting and expelling an incredible barrage of sound. However, one of the most enjoyable parts of a Yonatan Gat show, especially if you’ve seen the band before, is watching the new listeners, the unsuspecting folks who happen to be at the bar on a mid-week night, as the show unfolds.
Always refusing to set up onstage, instead opting for pitching their gear right in the middle of club floors, Yonatan Gat’s set challenges the crowd from the onset with its immediacy. Before beginning, percussive instruments–wood block, shakers, and the like–are handed out to the crowd, who begin clicking along as the band starts up. Gat and his two cohorts stand mere inches from concertgoers as they rip into their set with cacophonous percussion and upbeat guitar lines that embraces dark surf pop and garage rick while delving into an occasional klezmer-informed melody. These grooves are deep, and the audience finds themselves utterly last in them.
One guy in the front row stands with his hand on his jaw, staring, transfixed. Another rolls his head around his shoulders in synchronicity to the jolts of the song, occasionally rocking forward suddenly to accompany sudden musical shifts; with a shocked expression, his eyes look like they might burst from their sockets. Yonatan Gat is currently performing on the most incredible sets in small to medium venues. Excepting large budget, major label touring acts like Nick Cave or Arcade Fire, Gat might have indie-rock’s most important live show at the moment. If you haven’t seen the band, change that.
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