If bands at SXSW were ranked like college basketball teams, DeVotchKa would be a contender for No. 1.
The Denver-based punk-gypsy outfit plays with confidence, speed and finesse. They compose fearlessly. And they organically create a sound that comes into its own "A Mad and Faithful Telling," which Anti- will release Tuesday.
Forty-minute set Saturday afternoon was performed stripped down without the string quartet that will accompany the band on a European tour in April followed by a monthlong U.S. trek that begins April 26 at Coachella. Personally, this was the triumph of the festival.
The ultimate fusion band, they bounce frenetically between eastern Europe traditions, disco beats and the sounds of spaghetti Westerns; the singing is full-throated and romantic; the blend of guitar,  violin, trumpets and sousaphone astonishingly well meshed.
It could be filed under "world music" but that cuts short its ambitiousness and applicability in the rock 'n' roll realm. What they do is seamless, and just hours after seeing them display a brilliant melange, I happened to catch an example of the blend not quite working properly with Lobi Traore and Joep Pelt.
Traore is a brilliant guitarist from Mali who makes largely acoustic records on his own. Pelt, also a guitarist but from Amsterdam, has partnered with Traore over the last several years to provide a forum for the dance music he plays at home. The blending of the two does not come together so organically and there's little sign of their years working together. Pelt lacks the grace and warmth of Traore and has placed himself as an equal, with does not work in a convincing fashion.
Prior to them taking the stage, kora player Boubacar Diebate played a lengthy and engrossing set backed by electric guitar, upright bass and saxophone. Diebate, a native of Senegal who now lives in Boulder, Colo., arrived in Austin with no band and created the ensemble during his stay in town. The saxophonist, a new Austin arrival from Detroit named Joshua Thompson, met Diebate the day before the gig; no one was quite sure about the bassist's surname; and the guitarist, whose fulltime job is as bassist in Traore's band, became part of Diebate's ensemble and hour before showtime. Whatever criticisms I had about certain Western bass lines working better than others were tossed out soon after the show, a unique blending of skills and styles that existed for one night only.
The Saturday tally:
HOURS SEEING SHOWS: 12:30 p.m. to 5:15 p.m./8 p.m.-midnight
PERFORMERS SEEN: 11
ACTS INTERVIEWED: One
ACTS UNFORTUNATELY MISSED: She and Him, Jim James, the Ting Tings, Santogold, Joe Ely, R.E.M., a Lou Reed tribute, Why?, Wooden Shjips, Ryan Bingham, Vinicio Capossela, Black Mountain, Freddie Stevenson, Duke Spirit, Fellice Brothers