Upon entering Sjöhästen (The Seahorse), the small cocktail bar come restaurant, which acts as the venue for the Museum of Bella Artes show, you instantly get the feeling that you know what kind of experience you’ll be treated with. The stage in the lower end of the building is a small plateau, raised only a few inches from the floor and covered with rugs resembling something taken from Persia. It won’t be sumptuous in a place like this, rather intimate but that has it advantages as well. The crowd contains the usual suspects – the indie pop kids with a tote bag hanging from almost each and every shoulder. And the only bright color you can spot, except the interior’s, is from the secondhand dresses some of the girls are wearing.

Museum of Bella Artes is a three piece band, made out of Leo, Alice and Joanna, currently befriended with the Swedish pop label Force Majeure, which also house Nhessingtons and Bandjo. So far the only material within easy reach is their cover version of The Sapphires song “Who Do You Love”, which puts you in a interesting situation if you haven’t seen them live before. Armed with a Roland drum pad, an iPod and a tambourine, the band casually gets on stage. And this is the interesting part, because all the songs they’re playing except the last one, are new to me. Unfortunately none of them strike as hard as aforementioned single, but the atmosphere from that specific song is what you get with the others as well, that lush and dreamy electro pop which is impossible not to like. One of the girls, wearing a dark tunic, black tights and white Converse, tells the audience that this is their hit and that they all should dance, before they play “Who Do You Love”, only to be standing still themselves. Leo, the man handling the drum pad, on the other hand seems to enjoy it since he from time to time almost jumps around while playing.

They’ve played live prior to tonight’s show, but yet in quite a remarkable way, show with their body language that they aren’t that comfortable at all. It’s kind of cute. Likable might be an even better description of Museum of Bella Artes as a live band. In the end it’s more of a taste of what to expect from upcoming studio recordings rather than a fantastic live show. But practice makes perfect, so they say.

mp3:> Museum Of Bellas Artes: ‘Who Do You Love (Handsomeboy Technique remix)’