By: Carissa Aguirre
Molchat Doma. You probably recognize the name from TikTok, but if you don’t, you’ve definitely heard their most popular song Судно floating around somewhere online. Originating from Minsk, Belarus, Egor Shkutko, Roman Komogortsev, and Pavel Kozlov flooded social media platforms. Thousands of people used the song in the background of their videos and the band generated over 2.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify since then.
They took the stage of Bayou Music Center on April 26th here in Houston. It was the 25th stop on their North American tour that they originally started in Monterrey, Mexico. They started the show off with Коммерсанты off of their 2018 album Этажи (floors). One of the biggest differences of hearing this song live, was the sound of the synth. I’m no music expert, so I’m not sure how to describe it (the right way), but each beat of the synthesizer echoed as the next one played. It made the entire song sound so much different than what I was used to hearing on the album. It was mesmerizing.
Everyone was screaming as Shkutko took center stage. He swayed back and forth to the beat as the lights in the background flashed red and white. When he began to sing, he stood still, gripping the mic with both hands. He had such a serious look on this face, but for a song about companies pushing propaganda, I wouldn’t want to smile either. However, where he lacked in facial expression, he made up for with his dancing and exaggerated movements.
The performance was amazing. Everyone was singing and dancing the entire show. Some people even crowd surfing to the front of the stage. The few people up in the balcony took advantage of the space around them to spread out and dance, while some kicked back and enjoyed the show sitting. I was fortunate enough to shoot around the entire venue and experience the show from every angle. Some of my favorite shots were from the back of the crowd.
They ended the show with an encore and of course saved Судно for last. As a fan of ‘80s music, I’m glad the genre inspires bands like Molchat Doma. I think it brings together different generations of music lovers who appreciate the same sound and it definitely showed in the age demographic of the crowd.
They didn’t exactly pack the place out and there were only a handful of people in the balcony section, but the performance was still amazing. Everyone was singing and dancing the entire show. Some people even crowd surfing to the front of the stage. The people up in the balcony took advantage of the space around them to spread out and jump around, while some sat back and enjoyed the show sitting.
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