Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, and a major perpetrator of the great terror and the principal Soviet signatory of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939 as well as post-war negotiations. The Molotov Cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, Molotov bomb, fire bottle, fire bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons.The Molotov cocktail was named after him by the Finnish military during the Winter War. Infact, Molotov is considered to be one of the principal architects of the Ukrainian genocide, or Holodomor.Wondering what this rant is all about...? It wouldn’t have been just on my part to write about the music of Molotov Cocktail without describing what it actually is. The name perfectly suits the band as their music is of the ‘exploding’ kind. Right from the word ‘go’ they lit the stage on fire with a power packed and highly energetic performance recently at Hard Rock Cafe.Molotov Cocktail came into existence in 1998. Shaun Robert, on the bass and Arjun Thomas, the vocalist, formed the band and have been playing for it since then. Apart from Roberts and Arjun, the band consists of Enoch David on drums and Naveen Thomas Joseph on guitars.The genre of their music is predominantly rock but they also play funk and jazz. “The music is very ‘in-your-face’ types. Its a lot more complex than what meets the eye.There are layerings in our songs, and only a seasoned musician or listener can notice the underlying tone. Lets say if a song like Why Hate comes across as aggressive and out-rightly falling in the category of rock, then upon paying attention you will find that it will have undertones of jazz or funk too,” said Naveen.Their influences are bands like Xtreme, Whitesnake, U2, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Toto, Steely Dan, Sting, Infected Mushroom, Pearl Jam, Dave Mathew. Molotov Cocktail was out of action for a while, until they recently decided to get their act together, bring their old line up back.And now, the band will release their first extended play by the end of this year with four songs. Their playlist consisted of their original compositions like Save Me (which they played for the very first time), Mocktail, Why hate, Free Me and covers of bands like Extreme and U2. “It was a refreshing change to listen to some new stuff. You do get bored listening to covers all the time. So, in my opinion any band which comes up with such amazing original compositions deserves respect,” said Abhineet, a student who seemed to thoroughly enjoy the performance.While not playing music together they prefer spending a lot of time playing golf, white water rafting, tennis, skydiving and boxing on the Nintendo Wii. Another passion of Molotov Cocktail is food which they claim can be witnessed when they are unleashed to a ‘full-meals’ restaurant in Chennai, their home town.“Giving an out-n-out exploding performance is what we aim to achieve every time we step on stage.As a band we look forward to pushing boundaries and coming up with songs which are across genres. We really liked performing at Hard Rock tonight,” said Naveen.
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