Sometimes it takes a band that is literally from the other side of the world to escape the web of irony that makes watching some shows here an exercise in double-guessing. For example, is Chromeo really in love with Journey, or was it just getting cheap yuks when it ended its set on Saturday afternoon at Stubb’s with a medley of “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Any Way You Want It” and other standards of FM radio from circa 1981?

Late on Saturday night I caught White Shoes and the Couples Company, a group from Indonesia that dresses in crisp white suits and skirts, sounds like a house band on “The Love Boat” and was about the more adorable thing I saw all week. Its songs draw from 1960s and ’70s bubblegum and easy-listening, with big nods to Neil Diamond, the Carpenters and disco.

But what made its set at La Habana Annex so refreshing was a straightforwardness that had no obscure reference points and caused no skeptical head-scratching. A friend reported that the band had been spotted outside the bar beforehand “looking scared,” but when they came on they were all smiles and “ba-ba-ba-ba” harmony choruses, with the lead singer, Aprilia Apsari, doing dainty dance steps and snapping her fingers (a role specifically attributed to her on the band’s MySpace Page. There was even a long, Ringoesque drum solo.

The band has released a self-titled in the United States through Minty Fresh, and as with every other show here there was a merchandise table to the side. The bassist, Ricky Surya Virgana, pointed it out with a pitch I definitely heard nowhere else at SXSW: “If they don’t sell out,” he said, “we can’t go back to Indonesia.” And then they went back to smiles and “ba-ba-ba-ba.”