Kevin Bronson on March 21st, 2015

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Snoop Dogg, Ibeyi, The fin., Big Phony, Failure, Speedy Ortiz, Juliana Hatfield Three, Dylan Gardner, Tobias Jesso Jr., more

South by South Wet.

It rained Friday in Austin, prompting a squall of band puns (“Dudes, we are so soaked to be here!”), wreaking havoc on shows that were scheduled outdoors and making an Olympic sport of dodging the spikey ends of umbrella ribs. Rain gear in a drunk person’s hands can be dangerous, you know. The biggest winners at the South by Southwest Music Festival on Friday were the brands/sponsors who had free ponchos for attendees who’d come to Texas unprepared for the weather. (Ahem, thank you, Aussie BBQ.)

If the swampy conditions further calmed this year’s far-less-stormy SXSW seas, it was also a gentle reminder that Nature rules. Which, in a way, can also be said of Ibeyi, the duo of French-Cuba twins Lisa-Kaindé Diaz and Naomi Diaz, who provided the most memorable performance on a day that boasted many. Included: Japan’s The fin., South Korea’s Big Phony and L.A.’s own Talk in Tongues, along with highlights from comeback kids Failure, the Juliana Hatfield Three and Swervedriver.

But first, a word from our keynote speaker:

Snoop Dogg was SXSW’s keynote speaker this year, and like 2014 with Lady Gaga, the affair featured “A Conversation With” rather than an actual speech. It was moderated by his manager, Ted Chung, so the standing-room-only crowd in the massive Austin Convention Center ballroom wasn’t exactly going to get “Hardball”-type questions. But after an incredible opening set by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (hello, 10:30 in the morning!) and a lead-in with Snoop’s new “Peaches N Cream” video, Calvin Broadus Jr., 43, traced his roots from gangsta rapper to multi-platinum artist/actor/entrepreneur/activist. My Top 3 takeaways from the conversation:

• Snoop is not only developing an HBO series about L.A. in the 1980s with Allen Hughes (“Menace II Society,” “Dead Presidents”), he is involved with Trapflix.com and NiftyTV.com, sites that incubate independent filmmakers.

• He said that for all his Grammy nominations (he’s never won), he’s more proud of the fact that almost 60 players from the youth football league that he founded some years ago in Long Beach have earned scholarships to Division I colleges, including his son, wide receiver Cordell Broadus, who will attend UCLA. Sports-related: Success, he says, comes more often not to those with “god-given-wake-up-and-you-have-it talent,” but to those with work ethic. “I come from a sports background, so I’m competitive,” he said. “When I’m in it, I’m in it to win it.”

• And then there was his seemingly unlikely collaboration with Willie Nelson, which at one point found him in Amsterdam with the country outlaw getting high. And higher. And higher. “I thought, ‘This old man is really trying to challenge me right now,'” said Snoop, so he copped to being hungry. The pair ended up at “KFC, in a drive-through, me and Willie Nelson side-by-side. We open up our bucket of chicken and we both grab the same piece of chicken at the same damn time. … That was one of the greatest moments of my life, when Willie and I grabbed the piece of chicken at the same time.”

Fast-forward to an evening set at the Central Presbyterian Church, where the Diaz sisters performed songs from the self-titled “Ibeyi” (which came out in February) and earned high marks for charm, audience engagement and innovative use of percussion and vocal harmonies. With Lisa singing lead, playing keys and triggering loops and Naomi percussing on cajon and bata drums, the music of Ibeyi (say “ee-bay-ee”) mixes Afro-Cuban influences with French pop, trip-hop and probably a few other strains. Their videos give you an idea. They covered Jay Electronica’s “Better in Tune With the Infinite,” and scarcely had to ask the audience to join in hand-clapping and sing-alongs. It was truly moving. And there’s something about sibling harmonies, too. [They are not to be missed when they play the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on April 1.]

Ibeyi’s was the first of three consecutive sets by artists from far-off places. Next up was a stop at Japan Nite at Elysium for The fin. The quartet of Yuto Uchino, Ryosuke Odagaki, Takayasu Taguchi and Kaoru Nakazawa make shimmering, easy-to-love psych-pop rooted in the ’60s and ’70s, and clearly saw this as the coming-out moment it was. Everything was captured on video; besides the cameramen who proved a distraction onstage with the band, mini-digital cameras were everywhere– attached to gear, strapped to mic stands and even bracketed to the bottom of Odagaki’s guitar. The highlight was “Night Time,” during which Uchino’s vocals feint from tenor to falsetto. “We love America,” he said at the end with a big smile. “We want to come here again.” [Note: Japan Nite visits the Bootleg HiFi on March 28.]

Then there was Korea Night at the Majestic, where Big Phony straddled two interesting worlds. Big Phony is Bobby Choy, who was raised in the U.S. by his immigrant parents and is now based in Seoul. Where, he joked, “nobody can pronounce F’s, so there I am known as Big Pony.” Anyway, Big Phony first emerged as a somewhat-weepy folk singer, and a nice one at that, building a nice following behind touching songs like “I Love Lucy.” Then came electronica. “Usually I write acoustic singer-songwriter stuff, but I had this urge to make an electronic album,” he explained Friday, adding a little bit wistfully, “It did better than my acoustic album.” He began his set with two acoustic songs, puzzling a handful of those who only knew for his 2014 dream-pop album “Long Live the Lie.” Then, backed by a full band and switching to a mic that swathed his fragile voice in reverb, he rocked out, playing songs from the recent album and from the film “Ktown Cowboys,” which premiered this year at SXSW and in which Choy has a role.

The post-keynote portion of Friday started at the Convention Center, where L.A. faves Best Coast gave a performance on the Radio Day Stage that was broadcast live to six public radio stations nationwide. The highlight was the shoegazing title track to Best Coast’s forthcoming album “California Nights.” They played the title tracks to their first two albums, as well, “Crazy for You” and “The Only Place.” And, of course, “Boyfriend,” which, tangentially, was the least interesting of three boyfriend-themed songs I heard on Friday.

Speedy Ortiz playing like the arena-rock band many think they will become finished their brawny late set at the Yahoo-sponsored venue with the head-clearing single “Taylor Swift.” And then there were the resurgent Juliana Hatfield Three, playing Buffalo Billiards behind “Whatever, My Love,” the first Hatfield album in that band incarnation since 1993. In front of an older, obviously weary (it was 1 a.m.) but no less appreciative crowd, Hatfield played old faves like “Feelin’ Massachusetts” and “My Sister” along with new gems like “Ordinary Guy,” a slap-upside-the-head to a self-destructive amour.

Earlier in the day, steady rain scotched my plans to hit the annual SPIN party, and seeking shelter in a small club I spent some unplanned quality time with L.A. psych-rockers Talk in Tongues. Their forthcoming album “Alone With a Friend” recalls the best one-third (and most concise parts) of Tame Impala’s output, and live, songs like “Still Don’t Seem to Care” and “While Everyone Was Waiting” sound more muscular than they do on the recordings. Well worth the price of a ticket, and probably the price of the album too.

Taking a quick break after Talk in Tongues, I heard a familiar song coming from an adjacent venue. Yes, it was Swervedriver, and yes, I had just seen them two weeks ago in L.A. … but they were next door, playing outdoors to a crowd huddled under a modest tent. So the question was: Would you stand in a two-inch puddle of rainwater to watch three and a half Swervedriver songs? Survey says: Yes.

Later in the evening, two more highlights. First, there was 18-year-old Dylan Gardner (of Pasadena), playing timeless guitar pop to small audience at the ASCAP showcase. He looks like a Beatle and possesses catchy songs and an exuberant attitude. And his album “Adventures in Real Time,” first released on Bandcamp, was picked up by a big label and re-released in January. Kids these days.

And, after Speedy Ortiz, there was Failure, roaring to a head-bobbing, fist-shaking, mostly-testosterone-charged crowd at the Yahoo venue. It was smokin’. New music is en route. “I always wanted to say this from the stage,” Ken Andrews said. “This is the first song from our new album.” And anyone who liked Failure’s previous singles will like it, it’s titled “Hot Traveler,” from the album “The Heart Is a Monster.”

Finally, a tidbit from the Central Presbyterian Church: Tobias Jesso Jr.’s otherwise lackluster set was entertaining for one reason– he kept botching a song. After starting promisingly with a cover of Big Star’s “13,” Jesso segued to his own material. The rest of the set became The Great Search for “True Love.” The piano man started the song of that title, stopped it, tried it again, then abandoned it, promising he’d come back to it later. “I played it earlier today,” he said, “and now it’s just not there.” Later, another failed attempt. “What if there is no ‘True Love’?” he joked. Then, after the ballad “Hollywood,” a fourth try, with a cheat sheet provided by someone in the front row. And this time, a surge of feedback mucked up the proceedings. You had to feel for him. He got a partial standing ovation after finishing it. “True Love,” indeed.