Well that's over with. To complete my spiritual journey, I will now both provide my top-five greatest moments (Metallica excluded) and explore how non-SXSW revelers might enjoy their music, immediately or in the immediate future.

1. Ms. Janelle Monáe, of course. Her deeply, defiantly weird dystopian-diva routine is way more exhilarating live than on her Metropolis: The Chase Suite EP, wherein the lovesick-android-on-the-lam shtick gets a little distracting. More Suites are planned soon, though, and power-r&b smash-in-the-making "Tightrope" is a monster, so. See her on tour this summer opening for No Doubt, of all people, including stops at PNC Bank Arts Center June 26 and Nikon at Jones Beach Theater June 27.

You could probably join this band if you wanted. More pics below.

Mere hours after joining an awestruck cast of thousands to celebrate the imminent release of Guitar Hero: Metallica, we encounter the exact same level of glorious exuberance, offstage and on, with roughly 1 percent of the people. Gleefully anarchic Bay Area ska outfit Still Flyin' are a double-digital ensemble playing to not much more than a double-digit crowd at 1:30 a.m. at the Independent, a venue represented in our official pocket venue guide by a rather intimidating map of I-35, though it's only like two blocks from "the action." But crowded as close to the stage as possible, regarding a whirling dervish of dancers, horn players, amateur cowbell enthusiasts, and backup singers, the effect is just as transcendent as "Sanitarium" was, anthemic malevolence swapped out for outrageously catchy odes to -- well, I'm not clear exactly, but weed and beer are prominently involved.