MOLCHAT DOMA / Amsterdam, July 2022
I think it was exactly a year ago that I bought the tickets to Molchat Doma. Not only because of that TikTok song Sudno - a trend by gen z westerners who overromanticized life in the Soviet bloc (is your romance still here, kid? :)) - but also because of the research that I did on their banger Diskoteka. But then covid happened again and all I got was no future date for the gig and videos from my friend while I was in my room with "window, bedside table, and the bed." And then the war happened with no possible cure in sight. Voobshche ne smeshno (absolutely not funny). I remember I asked my friend what should we do with Molchat'y - is it okay to listen to them? Even on the day of the gig I checked if they made any statement about the war which - to my relief ??? - they did on March 1. I do hope that "part of the funds from all scheduled concerts" (quite abstractly said, but I hope it means something) they did donate to Ukraine. After all, they should know what it feels to live under the Soviet sun that should have already died out more than 20 years ago.
Do you think that reception of their music could be different at the time of the war? Mind you, if you don't know, they come from Belarus - a country that has seen the same president for 28 yrs, a country that has its own language, but speaks Russian because - amongst the "president's" love for Soviet identity - Russian linguists consider Belarussian to be a dialect (from research by Bernhard Kittel et al.). Should the reception of Sudno (written by Boris Ryzhy who committed suicide), Ne Smeshno (Not Funny), or Ya Ne Komunist (I'm not a communist) be different from those TikTok videos of wearing black and smoking ciggs because that is probably what my parents in their youth did (which they didn't)?
Then we need to start with the support: Luis Ake.
Luis Ake performing “Circus der Ratten”
Oh Luis, you remind me of a friend I met in Oslo seven years ago. He sometimes also wears an intimidating mask, he gets into a character when performing, but deep inside he is an ultimate sweetheart. It's difficult to understand this while you're playing because the mix of 142bpm techno-like drum machine and German lyrics that I can't distinguish from hearing for the first time of course makes me think of a stereotypical German in black with some adult candy in a fanny pack. But if you listen carefully, Luis pleads in his falsetto Komm und verlieb Dich in Mich. And I did - the moment he said "thank you" for which he deserves a medal for "the kindest thank you that any musician has ever said". Luis is what Alex Cameron would have been in the early 2000s. The Y2K style which is not my favorite (unpopular opinion police, arrest me), is also there in Luis' music just as it is on his instagram acc. Just put on Sommer, whip out your baby-blue/pink frameless sunglasses and imagine that it's the beginning of 2000s and you are raving in Love Parade. The epic eurodance piano in this song has made it the absolute banger to which I laughed at first, but I think I will listen to unironically at home.
I walked my way through to the 3rd row (mind you - walked - it's pretty easy to do that when those who stand in the front mainly wait for Sudno) so I could get the best out of it. If you think that I'm being an obnoxious boomer, then here's a scene from the gig: a guy in front of me - +- 20yrs old - was holding his phone up as if he was filming, but he actually played Subway Surfers :) I was an itch close from taking a picture of him and tagging Molchat'y, but instead I went in front of the guy. If this is how he cared about this gig that had to be postponed because of the covid, then why would he care about me being in the front? And so there I was, standing next to mostly girls under 25 who had their cameras ready on film mode once the technician was done setting up. Come on, these are the TikTok stars, Sudno might come up rather sudden!
But next to the melancholy, there was also something intimidating - this captivating and rather uneasy feeling that they aimed to transcend if you were present to accept their performance. These three men that seem to be unfamiliar with what smiling is, are the complete opposite of Luis. Some moments in between the songs were almost screeching with terror. Egor - who I could have mistaken with the Alchemist from Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain - looked over the whole crowd, never stopping at anyone longer than 2 sec, while the strobe-like blinding white light cast a menacing shadow over him. A personification of houses that are silent.
Molchat Doma performing “Obrechen”
They might be silent, but they store a lot of noise inside that is let out as much via the music as via the way they perform. When Egor is screaming NE SMESHNOOO, he convinces you to believe that it's really not funny. But it is rather funny how they make you think that they are about to play A Forest by The Cure when it turns out to be just another banger by Molchat Doma. Just as funny as how they left Sudno for the encore that way ensuring that nobody leaves the gig once the song comes up.
