Wednesday, October 9th – Los Angeles
Even if you don’t recognize Belarusian post-punk band Molchat Doma by name, I can guarantee you’ve heard their music if you’ve spent more than a few hours online over the last six years. Molchat Doma’s “Судно (Борис Рижий)” is one of the most famous victims of the “slowed/reverb” and “sped-up” audio trends beloved by the TikTok generation. Their ghostly, fuzzed-out sound evokes images of flickering street lights and concrete buildings, a nighttime feeling that is perfectly reflected in the iconography of their album covers.
Molchat Doma’s newest album Belaya Polosa found its home on KXLU’s new adds shelf last month, September 2024. While honoring the band’s lo-fi post-punk foundation, Belaya Polosa builds on Molchat Doma’s signature sound and experiments with more upbeat tempos and dancefloor-friendly electronic rhythms. My first time seeing Molchat Doma was in a crowd full of hundreds (if not thousands, don’t quote me, I’m bad at math) of people at Cruel World midday, so needless to say, their Wednesday night show at the 200-cap Echo sold out instantly. When our music director, Brett, told me KXLU was offered a pair of staff tickets, I knew it was my duty as a self-respecting goth-adjacent DJ to accept, but only on one condition- he would have to come with me. I didn’t listen to the album before attending the show, so I was expecting (and perfectly happy) to sway to some slow, gaze-y post-punk. While I definitely received my prescribed dose of somber swaying, the real highlight of my night was when I felt myself smiling like an idiot, jumping up and down to “Колесом / Kolesom” and “III”. Brett and I exchanged a couple of jaw-dropped looks during these moments.
Along with their new songs, Molchat Doma’s stage presence also caught me by surprise. When singer Egor Shkutko wasn’t cursing the heavens with his eyes and hand movements fixed towards the sky, he stood back and surveyed the crowd like a vigilant military leader making sure his subjects didn’t step out of line. He only spoke to give thanks in Russian between songs. During a classic audience-falsely-thinks-the-song-is-over-instrumental-break moment, Shkutko even shushed the crowd for a moment, demanding silence before the dark bass and crazy synth lead returned and gave us permission to dance. Out of the hundreds of live shows I’ve attended over the last ten years, I can confidently say I’d never been shushed by a performer before. That was the moment I knew they had earned my complete respect.
In my normal world of fellow disc jockeys and music-heads, some people side-eye those who openly enjoy artists that have broken into mainstream consciousness. It’s always a matter of finding the most obscure, unheard-of record when competing to be the best music nerd of them all– a tale as old as time. Sometimes this pretentious mentality keeps me from seeing more popular artists live, listening to contemporary music and, honestly, enjoying things. To put the band’s popularity into perspective, there were people selling bootleg Molchat Doma shirts on the walk back to my car. At The Echo. I’ve never seen this happen before outside of stadium shows. Anyway, I’m proud to report that I thoroughly enjoyed Molchat Doma’s live set, and I’ve been listening to Belaya Polosa on a loop. I write this as much for you as I do for myself: a band having 3 million monthly listeners doesn’t always mean their music is overplayed, sometimes it just means 3 million people have good taste. Let yourself enjoy things… Buy a bootleg t-shirt…
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