concert review: molchat doma wrap up tour at the hollywood palladium.
march, 7th 2025 • the hollywood palladium • los angeles, california
full gallery can be found here
Forming in 2017 in Minsk, Belarus, Molchat Doma is a post-punk, dark wave group that’s been taking the world by storm. Molchat Dome, meaning ‘Houses Are Silent’ consists of members Egor Shkutko (vocals), Roman Komogortsev (guitar, synthesizer, drum machine), and Pavel Kozlov (bass guitar, synthesizer). Since their inception in 2017, the group has released 4 studio albums, 1 eps and a handful of singles.
At the start of 2020 they singed with an American label called Sacred Bones Records. Due to TikTok and the pandemic their song” Судно (Борис Рыжий)” or “[Sudno (Boris Ryzhy)” went viral and made them become a very notable group across the world. It reached No. 2 on the Spotify worldwide Viral 50 chart. They had planned to tour in North America with American singer Chrysta Bell, but due to the pandemic the tour was unfortunately canceled.
It’s evident in the sound of Molchat Dome that they’re heavily influenced by 1980s Russian rock music, specifically artist Kino, and have been compared to groups like Joy Division and the Cure. Their style is often categorized with post-punk, new wave, synth-pop, dark wave, and cold wave. While doing research for the group I actually learned a new term - “doomer music.” Doomers are people who are fatalistic about global problems like overpopulation, pollution, nuclear weapons, climate change, and the like. It arose primarily on social media and doomers tend to believe these problems may lead to human extinction. The music tends to have cold and gloomy elements, lyrics focusing on loneliness and just a very dystopian sound and feeling. Molchat Doma’s music has appeared in many “doomer” type playlists as well as videos of the same content.
Molchat Doma opened with the song “Kolesom,” followed up by my favorite song by them “Ty Zhe Ne Znaesh Kto Ya” off of their 2024 album Belaya Polosa. Ever since finding “Sudno (Boris Ryzhyi)” in early 2020 (thank you Tik Tok) my eyes have been opened to a whole entire world of electronic music that I had never heard of before, and I’m very grateful. This show singlehandedly brought back my electronic music phase, and after going to a show like this I’m itching to go to another show. After wait almost five long years, I finally got to see Molchat Doma live, and it exceeded all expectations. Even though I only speak English and literally do not know any Russian whatsoever, music is such a universal language that not knowing the words that Egor was singing did not taking away from the experience in the slightest. In a way, it let me be more in the moment and enjoying the tone of voice and backing instruments and synthesizers, instead of focus on the lyrics and the meaning behind it. I’ve noticed that sometimes I focus more on the lyrics, not giving the proper appreciation to the musical layers behind it. With Molchat Doma, that was definitely not the case, and I eagerly await their return to America.
Forming in 2015, Sextile is an American post-punk band based in Los Angeles and originally from Brooklyn, New York. The name comes from the astrology term and is a 60 degree angle between celestial bodies that is considered harmonious and positive. Sextiles are often associated with good moods, creativity and romance. The band consists of founding members Brady Keehn (vocals, guitar, electronics) and Melissa Scaduto (drums, electronics, guitar). They were joined by Lia Simone Braswell (drums).
Sextile has released 3 studio albums, one ep and singles “Current Affair” and “Paradox” in 2018, “Modern Weekend” / “Contortion” in 2022, and “New York” in 2023. Their first album A Thousand Hands (2015) has an “occult-inspired post-punk style” that blended industrial, surf-punk, psychobilly and ambient music, often describing their sound as post-punk and electronic rock. Their second album, Albeit Living (2017), has more synth-punk vibes will their EP 3 (2018) leans more towards dark wave. Although all of their music has similar elements, it has developed over the years, expanding the subgenres of EBM and the like.
They started their set with “Disco” off of their ep 3, followed by their most recent release “Freak Eyes,” that was released in February in 2025. It will be featured on their upcoming album yes, please. that is set to be released May 2nd of this year. The group has extremely high energy and are extremely interactive with the audience. In the three songs that I was in the photo pit, Brady Keehn jumped down off the stage, using the floor to his advantage as well as standing on the barricade and interacting with the fans. I always love watching how different artists interact with the crowd; with Sextile it really seemed like they wanted to make sure the crowd was included in the performance and not just onlookers. Their performance, the energy and the completely sold out show was really making me feel like I was in a dark and loud club in Berlin or Moscow. Their music really transports you into that environment.
They ended their set with a really powerful image; Melissa Scaduto held a microphone in one had with strong and powerful vocals while holding a big (and I can imagine heavy) flag in the other with the words “ABORTION RIGHTS NOW” printed on it. Honestly, a wonderful sight to see on the eve of International Women’s Day.
