The Molotovs are a band that wear their influences not just on their sleeves, but head to toe. Siblings Mat and Issey take to the tiny upstairs stage at The Waterfront, pick up their Rickenbacker guitars and let rip!
Raised on The Jam, The Buzzcocks and “quintessentially British acts” (as the bio reads) from their parents’ record collection, they draw both sonically and visually from those artists, obvious style cues from the Modfather will be drawn a plenty.
Before they would take the stage Lady of Mars opened up, with big hair metal style intro guitars and powerful vocals.
Followed by Freddy Keach and The Mop, born in Norwich (and his parents in the crowd) but now living in London and very much living the 2000s Camden dream it seems, he could fit right in at Dingwall’s 10-20 years ago.
Then The Molotovs would come on firing out the gates with Johnny Don’t Be Scared which some of the crowd knew well enough to join in with “Still waiting here” line, during the false end of the song. Despite it only being a B-Side from 2025.
Followed up by Metallic Wife with Issey going so hard she has to have the strap on her bass fixed by the band’s tech, but that won’t stop their energetic performance.
Later the crowd, who are adorned with patches and t-shirts that match with the bands influences perfectly, lap up the cover of Bowie’s Suffragette City.
Even though this is the final night of their tour, there’s no way you’d tell from the way they play, keeping up their incendiary style all night.
I’m sure they will be back soon enough playing the big room downstairs or even straight over to the UEA. In the meantime the album is out on 30th January if all you want is More, More, More.