The Hype: Picked by Spin magazine as one of their acts to watch this year, 27-year-old Memphis DIY punk Jay Reatard has been getting some of the best ink of his already 12-year career lately. I expected it to be hard to get into the perpetually packed Vice venue on Sixth Street for my first chance to check him out.

The Show: Maybe in-your-face Canadian punkers F—ed Up cleared out the room thanks to lead yowler Pink Eye’s gang-tackling tactics, but the crowd was kind of light for Reatard Thursday night. Hiding behind a gigantic flop of red curls that looked like some kind of Carrot Top wig, Reatard strapped on his Flying V guitar, plugged in and never looked back. With a set list about 20 tunes long, he bashed from one thrashing metal-edged punk tune to the next without so much as a word in between, flailing his hair around and hiding behind the mass of curls as he ripped off Metallica-worthy runs in songs like “Screaming Hand.”

The Verdict: Though most of the songs I saw lacked the variety of Reatard’s experimental style, which includes everything from ’60s pop to Devo-like new wave, the thrashing audience didn’t seem to mind the Ramones-esque dive bomb through one song after another, even if they kind of blended together after awhile.

Keep checking in with You R Here for more South by Southwest coverage throughout the festival, plus there’s plenty more over on our sister blog, MTV News’ Newsroom.

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