Molchat Doma performs at the Echo in Los Angeles on Oct. 9, 2024. Photos: Paige K. Parsons.

LOS ANGELES — There’s a unique thrill in stumbling upon a surprise show by one of your favorite bands. Belorussian post-punk band Molchat Doma, which just announced a 60-date tour in support of new album Belaya Polosa (“White Stripe”), pulled that off at the Echo on Wednesday night in L.A.. The band has called L.A. home since 2022, when it uprooted itself from Minsk, the capital of a country ruled by a dictator who considers Vladimir Putin a friend.

Singer Egor Shkutko, multi-instrumentalist Roman Komogortsev and bassist-keyboardist Pavel Kozlov haven’t played a show since appearing at SoCal’s Dark Waves Festival last November. The Echo show sold out in less than 30 minutes.

Fueled by the crowd’s and its own pent-up energy, Molchat Doma unleashed three tracks from the new album, “Kolesom” (“Wheel), “Ty Zhe Ne Znaesh Kto Ya” (“You Don’t Know Who I Am”) and the appropriately titled “III,” as the album is the band’s third. As with its older material, the brutalist yet ever-so-danceable post-punk sound recalled bands like Black Marble, but with more deadpan delivery, a la Ruth Radelet of Chromatics.

There was a sprinkling of older tunes, such as standalone single “Doma Molchat” (“At Home All Are Quiet) and “Obrechen” (“Doomed”) from the band’s 2020 album, Monument. Etazhi, a 2018 album, was the most-represented of the older material with viral TikTok hit “Sudno” and five other songs.

Molchat Doma performs at the Echo in Los Angeles on Oct. 9, 2024

But the focus was on the propulsive songs from Belaya Polosa, including the live debuts of “Ne Vdvoem” (“Not Together”), the title track and “Chernye Tsvety” (“Black Flowers”).

An ominous rain and thunder roar introduced the new album’s lead single, “Son.” The undulating crowd of 200 or so fans seemed to move in unison, and midway through the performance, a mosh pit spontaneously erupted toward the front of there stage.

The energy on stage was just as intense. The members of Molchat Doma looked excited to to perform again after so many months. After almost every song, Shkutko greeted the applause with a heartfelt “spacibo!” Komogortsev had a grin from ear to ear while playing that was usually directed at Kozlov.

Several times during the nearly two-hour show, Shkutko moved his mic stand to the back of the stage, which indicated he was about to begin some otherworldly swaying and dancing in the vein of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis or The Twilight Sad’s James Grahm. He was mesmerizing to watch, exuding a compelling mix of agony—a tormented expression, combined with the slow, deliberate sway of his body and voice—and grace.

The band’s tour kicks off in Europe this month.