Kevin Bronson on March 21st, 2010

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My assignments for SPIN.com on the final day of SXSW took me all over the map – not just the Austin street map, but the stylistic map. With temperatures around 40 and an uppity north wind chafing anything that wasn’t covered, it was a tough day for outdoor shows. Yes, I was the guy wearing the promo beer cozies as gloves:

‣ The Boxer Rebellion breathed fresh life into Brit-rock.
‣ Karen Elson, the wife of the White Stripes’ Jack White, played a chilly outdoors set.
‣ P.K. 14 and Carsick Cars roared at a showcase for bands visiting from China.
‣ Black Tusk [pictured above] introduced me to “swamp metal,” in a very loud way.
‣ And the Hood Internet forged dance music from disparate sources, mashing up hip-hop and electro with indie rock.

Click here to check out my contributions to the Best & Worst of Day 4.

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Just after breakfast (that’s noon SXSW time), Montreal quartet the Besnard Lakes clambered onstage at the Galaxy Room Backyard, a tent off 6th Street that offered at least some refuge from the wind. “Thanks for coming out on a very Canadian feeling Saturday afternoon,” frontman Jace Lasek said.

The foursome rewarded the hardy crowd with 30 minutes of their massive soundscapes, the kind of dramatic and soaring music that, their avid following insists, puts them among the all-time heavyweights of the shoegaze genre. No argument here – with Lasek and his wife Olga Goreas trading off vocals, the music transported the modest crowd to a place other than a drab tent erected on a gravel lot. The band’s third album, “The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night,” should roar into your record collection.