Day two of the music portion of South By Southwest (SXSW) started out as it should: with delicious Tex-Mex food – al pastor tacos and beef fajita burritos courtesy beloved taco truck Taqueria Star make for a breakfast of champions. The regional flavor continued at Beauty Bar Annex, where the famous Los Angeles indie club Spaceland held a throwdown that featured a wide range of acts performing on two stages. L.A. local favorites — howler Joennine Zapata and Crazy Horse-meets-My Bloody Valenting wailer Imaad Waasif – played blistering sets in the sunshine on a stage overlooking a rolling creek, while indoors things got more international with U.K.-based acts like whimsical neo-shoegazers Banjo or Freakout and eccentric pop chanteuse V.V. Brown bringing the noise, among other things.

From there it was on to the Fader Fort, perhaps the hugest, most obvious destination of the whole conference. Despite the long lines to get the wristbands guaranteeing admission – up to 45 minutes in the sweltering Texas sun – nearly everyone in attendance seemed to make it a point to stop in to the Fort; indeed, the sounds of cutting-edge acts ranging from Neon Indian and We Were Promised Jetpacks to Free Energy could be heard emanating all across Austin like a hipster siren call. In the Fort’s crammed big tent, we caught a great set on Thursday from L.A. band Local Natives, but it was in the epic line to get in that the crazy, odd little moments that make SXSW special really happened. For one, a local spinner named DJ Manny had set up decks and speakers in a pedicab, entertaining those on the line until his Mac’s battery died; it was a humorous moment exuding the D.I.Y. spirit that is really the soul of the conference.

The highlight of the day, however, came next door to the Fader Fort, however, at the Eastbound & Found party, when Barcelona-based experimental dance-music Basque popsters Delorean played an uplifting set to an intimate crowd of one hundred or so, bring a bit of Balearic sunshine to the proceedings. A completely opposite experience, although no less compelling, was to be had in the set by Canadian hardcore extremists Fucked Up on the outdoor porch at Beerland. Vocalist Pink Eyes was shirtless and sweaty as he lead the band through cathartic covers of Black Flag’s “TV Party,” “Bodies” by the Sex Pistols and even a snatch of “Miss World” by Hole (!). Occasionally, the band would fall out of time into a droning groove, causing Pink Eyes to exclaim, “It’s like a SunnO))) show here!” Amazingly, the cops weren’t called to shut down the show, which finished triumphantly in all its ragged glory.

After the obligatory dinner of even more Mexican food at Manuel’s and ye olde disco nap, it was time to head over to the Rusty Spurs bar. There, to a packed house, Street Sweeper Social Club – aka the collaboration between Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello and The Coup’s rapper Boots Riley – were thrashing the joint with politically-charged raps and hard-rocking beats; highlights of the set included Morello playing a Hendrix-style guitar solo with his teeth and Boots banging out a relentless cover of LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out” for a crowd TKO. After Street Sweeper exited the stage, the Glitch Mob came on for a typically intense set of inventively fractured breakbeats and shuddering bass that had the audience rocking with fists pumping until the club kicked everyone out into the night air. It proved an invigorating end to a day of music that proved both dazzlingly innovative and bludgeoning, often in the same moment… In other words, a typically awesome day at SXSW.