We Are Serenades
T.T. The Bear’s Place
Cambridge, MA
May 12

Seeing We Are Serenades with a total crowd of about 20 people at the already-small-sized T.T. The Bear’s Place in Cambridge, near Boston, was a bit of a surprise and a total treat for fans of dream-pop and the members’ day-job outfits. Normally drawing full houses at larger, mid-sized venues with his main band, Adam Olenius of Shout Out Louds still gave a full-hearted and full-voiced performance as singer, acoustic guitarist and percussionist of the newly-minted Swedish supergroup, which also stars Markus Krunegard of Laakso. Krunegard, who also co-lead-sings, co-songwrites and plays lead guitar on a vintage electric Gretsch, matches Olenius’ vulnerable, far-reaching vocals wail for melancholic wail. The content of the tunes is not wholly depressing, however, just reflective and bit lovelorn, maybe; for instance “Daydreaming’s” lyric “I feel stuck between the lines I write” and the winter holiday anthem “Come Home” (which is a winking homage to Band Aid’s 1980s fundraising hit “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” ), which states “I don’t want to know what it’s like to spend the holidays all alone / I don’t want to hear another Christmas song about love when I’m on my own.” After that last number, coming towards the end of the set, Krunegard wishes the audience a late-spring “Merry Christmas.”

Behind the two principals of the band are a drummer, a keyboardist and a programming-and-effects stationist, who provides the layered, textured sound on songs like “Oceans.” This song features an opening wave-and-water sound sample and the title track of their debut album Criminal Heaven, which includes some keyboard strains and all the resplendence, delicacy and shoegaze of the Shout Out Louds’ indie-rock. The early set, lasting a little over an hour and ending before sunset, comprised mostly all of the duo’s songs to date.

All in all, We Are Serenades is yet another entry in the canon of Swedish indie-rock groups, and a good one at that. The two core participants prove by the substance of the material – lyrically and sonically – that they have something significant to give to this side-project. For fans of melodic indie music, this group’s first album will be a welcome listen with quite a bit of depth.