I recently went to the In Sonic Dreams showcase at The Fable to catch up with Bloody Death Skull and Modern Time Machines. As for the middle performer of the night, Eli Tarantula (the moniker for Eli Chartkoff), I wasn't sure who that was. When he went up on stage with his wife Mary Charkoff and the other band members, a realization kicked in. I know those two. I still couldn't exactly place them, but I knew I had seen them around the music scene. During the set, it was mentioned that he was in a band called The Monolators. My brain cells started to spin again.
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| Eli Tarantula at The Fable |
The Chartkoff's have been part of the Los Angeles music scene since 2000-ish. That is before I started to get my first taste of the DIY music scene in Los Angeles. My first encounter with The Monolators was in 2010 during a music festival called Silver Lake Jubilee. Then in 2011, they played a set with a band that just recently celebrated their 20th anniversary, Pu$$y-Cow. From my records, that was the last time I saw the band.
Eli Chartkoff is rather prolific when it comes to starting bands and based on his Instagram page, he is in six bands (some perhaps are no longer active or maybe they all are active). I did a search of my records and I saw his band Dawn of Sequins at The Echo in 2015. That may have been the last time I came across one of his bands, but I find it hard to believe that was the last time I crossed paths with the Chartkoff duo. Maybe they've done some supporting roles with other bands.
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| Eli Tarantula at The Fable |
Their set at The Fable was an eccentric display of playful punk rock music. Though Eli is the voice of the band, his wife Mary stole the show with her energetic saxophone performance. It had people in the crowd yelling out, "Turn up the sax." Their set included political songs with titles that did not disguise their leanings such as "Cats Against Trump" and -- assumption -- "Devil in Minnesota."
Doing brief scans of the released songs of the 6 bands that he is in, it looks like his setlist included songs from at least four of his other bands as well as his own material. He had two individuals from his own bands come up to sing cameos.
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| Eli Tarantula at The Fable |
Their leave-it-all-out-there on the stage performance inspired a trio of people to dance wildly off to the side without a care in the world. At some points, they danced so close to the band that I half wondered if their dancing might result in a collision with the band members.
The song spotlight goes to "Fire & Lightning," which isa song released under The Monolators. It is a relatively recent 2025 release. Per their Bandcamp description of the song, there is this clip, "a protest against the US government’s inhumane policy of separating migrant families at the border."
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| Eli Tarantula at The Fable |
I don’t know much, I’m just a father. If someone stole my children I’d want
Fire and lightning, rolling thunder
It was a song to dance wildly while watching band members in sequins protesting at the top of their lungs (both singing and saxophone playing).
Setlist: 99 Cent Store, Fire & Lightning, Medallion, I Got Nothin', Devil in Minnesota, Cats Against Trump, Imposter, One of Those People, Love Don't Love Me.
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