It was an appropriately cold and snowy night Tuesday when Molchat Doma stopped by the Anthem in Washington DC. The post punk trio, from Minsk, Belarus, are in the midst of a North American tour and, despite the inclement weather, DC showed up in force.
Joining Molchat Doma on this tour is Los-Angeles based Sextile. The crowd at the Anthem was already starting to swell when the trio took the stage. Founding members Brady Keehn and Melissa Scaduto (who paced back and forth with a large flag emblazoned with “Sextile”) were joined by a standing drummer for a 40-minute, high energy post-punk/electronic set. Keehn was met with cheers when he gave a shoutout to DC and revealed he once lived in Columbia Heights. The trio were successful in getting the crowd hyped for the headliner. Sextile’s most recent album is 2023’s Push.
The Anthem’s floor was full by the time Molchat Doma took the stage just after 9PM. For the unfamiliar, Molchat Doma (meaning “Houses are Silent” in Russian) formed in 2017, in Minsk, Belarus; the current lineup is Egor Shkutko, Roman Komogortsev, and Pavel Kozlov. Their music is an amalgam of post-punk, new wave, and synth-driven sounds (a drum machine takes the place of a drummer), and is often compared to 1980s work by bands like The Cure, Depeche Mode, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The men have also said they take influences from 1980s Russian rock bands, such as Kino.
The setlist was taken from across the band’s four LP discography; their latest album is Belaya Polosa, released last September. While their songs are sung exclusively in Russian, Molchat Doma’s modern-yet-retro sound has fueled their rapid ascent and appeal across generations and nations. In Washington, DC, the crowd, while skewing younger overall, featured a lot of Millennial and GenXers alongside the young goths.
As for myself, I was turned on to Molchat Doma a few years ago and was anxious to finally cover the trio. This was the band’s third visit to the District and the fourth show, having played back-to-back gigs at the 9:30 Club in 2023. The progression of venue size—from the Black Cat to the 9:30 Club to the Anthem—mirrors band’s ascent.
The snowy night outside was no match for the energy on the Anthem’s floor. It was awesome to see how engaged the fans were without much prompting from the three guys on stage—only an occasional “thank you” was uttered in English. This did not matter to the crowd, which was clearly stoked to be there. I noticed many fans waited in line close to two hours outside in the heavy snow just to get inside first and grab a spot on the barrier. Looking at their faces, it was obviously worth it to them.
Molchat Doma’s North American tour wraps up March 7 in Los Angeles.
SEXTILE
