Los Angeles noise-punk duo No Age [ tickets ] brought its bombast to SXSW on Thursday night (3/19), delivering an all-too-brief glimpse into the group's trademark combination of ear-busting distortion and delicious gear-shifts revealing the more-or-less traditional post-punk songwriting underneath.

How brief? A baffling 20 minutes, give or take--about half the length of the typical SXSW showcase. Compounding the disappointment was the fact that the doors to the venue opened much too late to accommodate the number of fans lined up to see the highly touted group, so many missed a chunk of the performance while waiting to get through the doors.

Those who got in--and there were plenty on 6th Street who didn't--got a small dose of what all the fuss is about: tremendous walls of guitar-and-drum noise, building in layers and intensity. The spectacle had many unsuspecting fans in the audience simultaneously transfixed and backing away from the speakers. Singer/drummer Dean Spunt always managed to draw the crowd back in with his verses, however, until guitarist Randy Randall's riffs again gave way to Big Noise.

It's a powerful push-pull dynamic, and one that makes No Age one of the more interesting groups to emerge of late.