Molchat Doma singer Egor Shkutko (Photo by Dan Moffat)

On a blustery evening in early May, an anxious crowd waited for Molchat Doma to enter the stage. A giant digital screen behind the proscenium flashed and fuzzed in VHS quality, and a familiar band logo font that harkens back to the days of KISS and Iron Maiden illuminated the Boston crowd. Belarus’ Molchat Doma had arrived.

The post-punk trio strolled into Royale’s cavernous ballroom ready to work. In a two hour performance that spanned choice cuts from 2017’s debut С крыш наших домов up to their most recent LP Monument, they danced hard without losing a step. In black shirts, black pants, and shiny black shoes, singer Egor Shkutko crooned in a baritone from beneath a handlebar mustache and willowy brown mane. Shkutko dialed up the swagger to a level 10 as he moved his hips and shoulders like Father John Misty, and gesticulated wildly with his hands and eyebrows like Alice Cooper. The effect was mesmerizing.

Roman Komogortsev (Photo by Dan Moffat)

With keyboards that sound like The Weeknd and a guitar tone (and drum machine) from early The Cure (they briefly played a cover of “A Forest”), Molchat treated the audience to a retro sound that hit its mark. I don’t speak Russian, but a quick google search shows lyrics from their most popular song translated to “life is hard and uncomfortable but it is comfortable to die.” Somehow that seemed fitting for a band from a country with a freedom index of 8/100. While not overtly political, Molchat’s lyrics point to the inequities and injustices faced on an everyday basis.

Whatever it all is, it’s working, as witnessed at the raucous sold out show at Royale on Tuesday night.

Pavel Kozlov (Photo by Dan Moffat)