So it's Friday night in Austin, you're three days into a total indulgence of bands, booze and music. You've seen Yeasayer or some other hipster band four times already, you've memorized Santogold's set, you've had too much beer at the Blender magazine building, and some weird guy is trying to coax you to his friend's band's 2 a.m. performance with free burgers. It's the end of the night and you're just looking for something ... different.

Well, tonight was different. A free show by two great bands, No Age and F***** Up, on a pedestrian walkway bridge about two miles away from where the rest of SXSW is happening, at 3 a.m. (THREE A. M.!), under the cover of darkness. These are the things that happen when determined hipsters coagulate into a critical mass of creative thinking. Most of the kids made the trek by foot, rather than cab, thugging it out for short-but-sweet sets by the two bands, amongst a cavalcade of dedicated music-lovers not quite ready to call it a night. Sightlines were poor but the music was great. Mostly, we just love that something this ... illicit ... can still happen at such a major music festival in a big city. Above, a picture of the crowd (um, like we said, the sightlines were POOR).

Hey, folks. Friday at SXSW was the hottest day of ’08 so far in Austin —. 90 degrees easy, sweating cojones, and I’ve got a farmer’s tan. Great.

But on to the good news — I was already a huge fan of No Age’s music — they had made a believer out of me months ago, which is no easy feat for Angelenos since I have an old Woody Allen-like resistance to West Coast phenomena. But seriously, there are few more exciting bands to have made a national splash in the past year, so I am happy to report Dean and Randy are awesome guys through and through.

At least that is my assessment after talking to them for an hour in front of a self-proclaimed "old hippie’s house" in south Austin, adjacent to a performance space/ vintage clothing store called the Opera House — the perfect spot for an afternoon showcase by the Smell, the L.A. club that has become a mecca for DIY-minded musicians and artists and which No Age more than anyone have made an indie household name.

What a difference a year makes for Randy and Dean. At SXSW ’07, they said they were "talking their way" onto the bill at most shows, and in fact got tossed from one Austin club after Randy tried to plant a kiss on an aggressive bouncer who got in his face. This year, they are more than welcome on any lineup. With a flurry of EP releases last spring, a growing summertime buzz, a much read New Yorker piece, the release of their Weirdo Rippers album in the fall, and signing with the indomitable Sub Pop, who will release their album Nouns in May, No Age are the little punk duo that could — and did.

"After the New Yorker article came out," Dean told me, "I was even getting e-mails from 60-year-old ladies saying, ‘I don’t even really know what punk music is, but I think you guys and what you are doing is great.’ "

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