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.

"I Let It Go" video via TheExtremer

The Thermals
The Bell House
Saturday, January 31

Portland mid-tempo indie-punx The Thermals would have more fun if we let them be more comfortable in regular-rocker's shoes. At a one-off show at the Bell House, they weren't too cool to dance around like goofuses when "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" came on the P.A., they weren't too cool to cover the Breeders ("Saints") and Nirvana (No Alternative's "Sappy"), and they certainly weren't too cool to bounce and bob at whatever tempos tickled their fancy--lead singer Hutch Harris, a jittery shaker; bassist Kathy Foster, a delicate groover.

But dudes always tempered their giddy, hyper-kinetic power-pop with a thick sheen of irony. Hey, it's clear they love the '90s. When an enthusiastic fan shouted for a song, Harris replied, "Oh it's coming... We're gonna bore you with a lot of new songs first." Self-deprecating, sure, but kind of hilarious since all the new songs sound exactly like the old ones: glorious bubblegum mired in distortion. Their lyrics are usually literary spirals set against oppressive religions or environmental destruction. But all that mattered tonight was the stuff the approving audience could chant back: "Here's your future!" or "Wait for me!" or "We were sick!" (The latter is a future classic off their upcoming fourth album, Now We Can See).