From R.E.M. to Kimya Dawson, South by Southwest 2008 celebrated indie legends past and future

Saturday's daylong Garden Party at the French Legation Museum was a perfect cap to four days of music — an eight-hour mix of indie-rock legends and buzzed-about hipsters. Dinosaur Jr.'s J. Mascis played an unplugged solo show — loaded with faves like "Get Me" — that still managed to be one of the day's noisiest. Likewise, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore — performing with the New Wave Bandits — went acoustic, but was still pretty damn loud. The band didn't play any Sonic Youth songs, but all of them still sounded like Sonic Youth songs. She & Him played a slightly looser set than in Friday night's Merge Records showcase (yes, I was stalking Zooey Deschanel all week; no, she didn't talk to me; no, that won't stop me from stalking her next year). By the time Austin's Okkervil River took the stage a little after 6 p.m., the formerly cozy outdoor Garden Party had turned into a rollicking pile of sweaty bodies, as the band performed songs from last year's terrific The Stage Names. Kimya Dawson — the quick-mouthed singer of the hit Juno soundtrack — closed the concert, although most of the audience had thinned out quite a bit. But there probably wasn't a more captivated audience all week.