Best & Worst Moments of SXSW 2011: Day Four

BEST BAND TO WATCH THROUGH A FENCE: PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART
Cheer Up Charlie's hit capacity for the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, but it wasn't a problem for those left out in the line. All that separated them from the crowd was a chain-link fence, so they stopped sweating the wait and spread out with beer cans in hand. The band seemed relieved to be playing something so endearingly informal. "I'm actually having a lot of fun," said singer Kip Berman after Pains performed the upbeat new Belong B-side, "I Wanna Go All the Way." He was grinning for the entire set. -- CHRIS MARTINS

BIGGEST RIOT: DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979
It's kind of amazing that this Canadian duo, who have released only one proper full-length, have built such an insane cult following after breaking up in 2006. The proof? DFA 1979's early morning performance -- their first of a short reunion tour -- at Beauty Bar's backyard space turned into a full-blown riot. The venue had reached capacity hours before the duo's set, and when they launched into the feverish anthem "Black History Month," fans in the alley started tearing down the chain link fence. Security guards responded quickly with pepper spray and tasers as mounted police stood watch nearby. No one appeared to be seriously injured and the guards' swift intervention quelled attendees who immediately started Facebooking and Tweeting what eventually turned into a non-event -- the healing power of social media, ladies and gentlemen! As for DFA's music? They played some. -- KEVIN O'DONNELL

BEST RETURNING CHAMPS: LIVING THINGS
For St. Louis-bred Living Things, it was just like starting over. Despite two major label albums (plus an earlier, aborted release on DreamWorks) and numerous previous SXSW appearances, the political glam-punks -- whose Ahead of the Lions was one of the 2005's best albums -- didn't draw much of a crowd at the cavernous Rusty Spurs. Not that the quartet noticed, as they played like they had something to prove and a stadium to impress, with frontman Lillian Berlin playfully picking on a woman covering her ears at the bar. Their short, pointed set leaned heavily on 2009's Euro-slick Habeus Corpus; the one new song -- a righteous punky reggae rager -- hints that the band may be planning their own Sandinista statement. Here's hoping it'll get the open ears it deserves. -- DOUG BROD

WORST LINE: OMAR RODRIGUEZ-LOPEZ GROUP
When Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's solo show turned into a Mars Volta gig with the addition of singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala onstage, the crowds amassed -- and nowhere are the Mars Volta and their predecessor, hardcore legends At the Drive-In, more revered than in their homestate. The lines wrapped the blocks, and some fans even climbed the trees for a peek in. Inside, it was the spastic, Spanish-flavored prog meltdown synonymous with their names: Rodriguez-Lopez summoned mind-bending sounds from his axe, while Bixler-Zavala held the mic stand like a boa constrictor, delivering his socio-political screeds about the parental system and not supporting children's aspirations, in song. -- WILLIAM GOODMAN

BEST GUITAR GOD: KURT VILE
The Philadelphia guitarist had his gear stolen from his truck the night before his Saturday slot, but he still managed to turn out wonderfully languid stoner grooves at NPR's afternoon party at Lady Bird Lake. Surprisingly, the shaggy-haired Vile, who looks and sounds uncannily like Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis, fared better with his acoustic-led tunes than his electric ones. (You gotta love the politically-correct minds at NPR for hiring two deaf translators to interpret from the front of the stage, although they couldn't quite nail Vile's slack-jawed drawl, man.) "On Tour" came on as a glorious two-chord drone; "Ghost Town" was pretty much more of the same -- definitely a good thing. But "Ghost Town" was his real show-stopper -- a stretched-out, genuinely touching ballad about a sad-sack loser who can barely get off of the couch. -- K.O.

BEST REMIX OF THE HOKY POKEY: DAN DEACON
For his lone show in Austin, quirky Baltimore dude Dan Deacon set up in front of the stage in the midst of the legions who packed into Cheer Up Charlie's dirt lot Saturday evening. Before launching his set of dense, ADHD-addled electronic art-pop, he led the crowd in an opening ritual. "Everyone put your left hand in the air," he began, then instructed fans to take a knee and point at anyone who wasn't following directions. Next, we kissed our hands and planted them on strangers' faces. "Let us now celebrate the individual as the mass," he said like a Yogi leading his acolytes in a game of spiritual hokey pokey. "Let's stand up and start the dance." -- C.M.

BEST LIVE BAND: NICOLE ATKINS
On record, including her February release Mondo Amore, this New Jersey native is a mostly tame, yet talented, songstress, elegantly singing big Brill Building-influenced pop ballads from behind a wall of lush orchestration. Live, however, she's a versatile siren leading a no-frills rock quartet. She poured herself into the dark torch song "Hotel Plaster," praying for a lover's embrace while stuck in a hotel room, then later she was Janis Joplin's big-winded kid sister, wailing on a extended blues solo. Now if only she could capture that magic on record, she'd be the superstar she deserves to be. -- W.G.

BIGGEST CLOWNS: MAN MAN
These Philadelphia experimental punk weirdos -- who switched their all-white outfits for a very-Hives-inspired black-and-white look -- have earned a rep for putting on boot-stomping live shows, but their Saturday afternoon set at Lady Bird Lake lacked any of their notoriously unhinged momentum. Man Man's drummer continually kept losing control of the tempos, and while they tore through their cacophonous, punk-as-fuck sea chantey "Top Drawer," their unwieldy oom-pah grooves never did much to get the crowd moving. One jam that started as a tale about children who flee Easter Island for Antarctica proved they should pack everything up and apply as the house band for Yo Gabba Gabba. -- K.O.

WORST EFFORT: JAMIE XX
Ennui is a pretty big part of the XX's stage show, but in-band electronics expert Jamie XX didn't seem too cool for school when he DJed to a rowdy crowd in Barcelona's basement bar -- he was simply asleep at the wheel. He looked bored, tired and a little pained to be there, and didn't even bother to pretend he was doing little more than pressing "play" on what may have been a series of premade mixes. Toward the end, as a straight version of "Ring My Bell" transitioned into his Gil Scott-Heron collaboration "I'll Take Care of You" and, finally, his remix of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep," he took a long break to lean against the wall. Way to go, bro. -- C.M.

BEST RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE: KEVIN DEVINE
As downtown Austin's thoroughfare of debauchery throbbed with rock show sound bleed and underage partiers, a hushed congregation sat transfixed and reverent in the pews of St. David's Sanctuary, just steps from the nightlife nightmare, watching Brooklyn singer-songwriter Kevin Devine play a solo set that matured into a vital, acoustic guitar-backed sermon. After gently cooing through a gorgeous new song, "1.7.11," a thoughtful lament on love lost, Devine stepped back from the mic and delivered a fire-breathing, unamplified take of "Brother's Blood" that garnered a well-deserved chorus of mid-song applause and a standing ovation. Amen. -- PETER GASTON