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One of the finest things I witnessed was a radiant set from the Cowsills at SXSW's unlikeliest venue: a Presbyterian church near the Sixth Street strip with a cavernous sanctuary that makes for magical sound. Susan Cowsill opened the night with her own band, playing an energetic and at times emotionally raw set that closed with her lovely Katrina tearjerker "Crescent City Snow." But the real killer was her performance with the reunited remaining Cowsills (plus nephew Ryan Cowsill on keyboards), whose flawless harmonies — they've been singing in the same keys for 30 years — rang out into the church with booming godliness and infected everyone present with flower-power cheer that was the perfect palate cleanser before all the rock madness that was to come. A large man with a gray ponytail actually pumped his fist in the air as he sang along to every single word of "Hair," and toward the end actually stood up in his pew with a beaming exhilaration that made me think he was that rare animal that both remembered the "60s and had actually been there. I doubt anyone who's attended the current Van Halen reunion tour has been rocked harder than he was that night.
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