“I’m going to sing one more song about love, and then that’s it for the subject.”

Between Bear Hands on Friday afternoon, Laura Stevenson & the Cans/Molly Nilsson on Friday, and Gary War on Saturday, the first concert offerings of the new semester came, saw, and conquered.

First up: Long Island’s Laura Stevenson, back at Wes for the first time since spring of 2011, the same semester her ska punk collective, Bomb the Music Industry!, performed without her. (That was a crazy freaking show.) This time, she brought with her an accordionist (okay, maybe he was here last time too, I don’t remember) and performed her buoyant, funk-tinged power-pop to a packed Eclectic dining room crowd—especially frosh-filled. Success! Though less effortlessly dynamic than Stevenson, Molly Nilsson, an icy one-woman-show from Sweden, charmed and confused with her synth-driven cabaret pop, promising a Q&A after her songs, then sneakily waltzing off the stage.