Pitchfork

No Age [Levi's/FADER Fort; 4:20 p.m.]

As if by design (which it probably was), the Levi's/FADER Fort gathered the hippest, most attractive crowd I saw in Austin. But hipness is only skin deep, and underneath was the kind of friendliness that blossoms when everything is free and the line to the port-o-potties is comically long. Plus, the beer lines were more crowded than the area in front of the stage, which means I had no problems snapping pics of the afternoon's acts.

Fingers entered ears as L.A. duo No Age screeched their way onto the stage. Their songs came in short blasts sandwiched between shards of looped guitar noise, but they were unpretentious in demeanor. Guitarist Randy Randall stood with his legs apart in a punk-rock stance as he riffed under drummer Dean Spunt's vocals. Spunt himself unwittingly provided a great metaphor for the band's music when he told the crowd to ignore the Guitar Center logo on his bass drum: "Pretend it's, like, a tiger fighting a wizard."

Ladyhawk [Levi's/FADER Fort; 5:05 p.m.]

Ladyhawk followed No Age and upped the hair quotient on stage to My Morning Jacket-like levels. Comparing Ladyhawk to MMJ in any other area would be unfair, but their set of straightforward rock was energetic and pleasant. Bass player Sean Hawryluk especially knows how to get down.

Redman [Levi's/FADER Fort; 6:35 p.m.]

For a famous pothead, Redman was surprisingly focused during his short set. A lot of that focus stemmed from the fact that he was constantly reminding us of the title and release date of his new album (yes, we get it: Red Gone Wild, March 27). When he wasn't promoting, he found time to cover "Rapper's Delight" as well as perform material from his own catalog with and without Method Man (whose part he had the crowd rap). The jury is still out, however, on whether or not swiping a joint from a member of the audience conflicts with his statement that "weed brings motherfuckers together."

Buzzcocks [Emo's; 8 p.m.]

Seeing old punk rockers never fails to inspire me. When I see these guys who are over twice as old as I am still alive, much less totally rocking out, I'm reminded that growing up doesn't have to equal getting dull or selling out. Case in point: Buzzcocks guitarist Steve Diggle, who owned this show with his white-polka-dotted orange shirt and frequent high fives to audience members.

The Buzzcocks look their age, but the only aspect of their performance in which it showed was their professionalism. Their set included standby favorites like "Orgasm Addict" and "What Do I Get?" alongside lesser-known tracks, all of which sounded uniformly fantastic. I'd complain about how loud it was (my ears are still ringing), but that would mean admitting defeat to a group of guys my dad's age!

Marnie Stern [Emo's IV Lounge; 10 p.m.]

I missed Marnie Stern at the Pitchfork party on Friday, so I had little idea of what to expect from her set at the Kill Rock Stars showcase. I heard that she had been playing along to her CD, and sure enough, she arrived on stage with an iPod attached to a carabineer hanging from her belt loop, which unfortunately meant that drummer Zach Hill was represented only by Stern's Hella headband.

Marnie did her best to engage the audience with natural charm and a Rodney Dangerfield impression, but someone needed to get the girl a backing group! As it turns out, she's touring with Hill and a full band this summer. Problem solved.

The Presidents of the United States of America [Maggie Mae's Rooftop; 12 a.m.]

As any self-respecting fan of "Peaches", "Lump", and their underrated II record would do, I decided to see what the Presidents of the United States of America were up to in the year 2007. Turns out they're workmen now, pulling tricks like inserting a cover of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" into their own ridiculous "Kitty". In hindsight, the Presidents' songs are worse than I remembered, and the overly enthusiastic crowd gave the show a frat party feel. Overall, it wasn't necessarily bad, just very weird.