Molchat Doma | The Forum
Molchat Doma hail from Minsk, Belarus, and have become the soundtrack to the Eastern Bloc on Western social media.
Their bleak, industrial synth-wave is inseparable from the bleak, industrial world from which they hail, and you can scarcely find an Instagram reel referencing post-Soviet aesthetics without one of their songs accompanying it.
Far from the snow-blown boulevards of Minsk, the day Molchat Doma played The Forum was the hottest yet of the summer. We drank beers by the Yarra in our summer clothes before the show as people walked by and office boat parties chugged down the river.
The Forum is probably my favourite venue in Melbourne, and it was sold out tonight. The stage is surrounded by classical statues, and the dark blue roof is dotted with LED stars.
We pushed our way onto the floor as Molchat Doma took to the stage two minutes early, slowly walking out one by one. All three members wore black skirts, the keyboardist in a black Adidas zip-up and the singer in a tight black singlet beneath his long, receding hair.
They opened with a deep synth chord that oscillated eerily between minor and major before it was shattered by the snare of their ’90s drum machine, launching straight into “Ты же не знаешь кто я” (“You Don’t Know Who I Am”).
Between verses, the singer would step back from the microphone and dance. He did the same dance all night: arms waving and outstretched, hips swinging side to side. It was very Euro-coded.
He sang with a deep vibrato, holding notes until he ran out of breath, squeezing the mic with both hands and contorting his face in a way that reminded me of Morrissey. After the first song, the crowd surged forward, and the people behind us were smoking cigarettes.
Their sharp electronic drums, raw synths, simple low guitar lines, and baritone Russian vocals give the music a sense of impending doom, while the heavy bass and kick drum make you want to dance.
They played “люди надоели” (“People Are Annoying”), and I went to the toilet, passing a couple dressed in all black kissing in the corner.
The band said “spasiba” and left the stage for a long time before returning for the inevitable encore, performing their four biggest songs in ascending order of Spotify listenership. They built a long intro into their biggest hit, “Судно” (“Vessel”), and the crowd surged toward the front for the final song of the night.
Molchat Doma have a very distinct sound and emanate an energy you can’t get from any band in the West. Their album covers feature famous brutalist buildings like the Hotel Panorama in Slovakia and the Pyongyang Hotel, and there is no better parallel to their sound.