Though Thursday’s schedule of 28 performers at NX35 was relatively underwhelming as a whole (and the biggest name, notoriously wonky but entertaining Texas troubador James McMurtry, canceled at Dan’s Silverleaf), there were significant standouts.

Chief among them was Dead Twins, a Dallas-based power-rock act comprised of brothers Gabe and Nick Cardinale that already overflowed with presence as a duo. Its recent gestation during the past month into a quartet, made complete by the addition of rhythm guitarist and ex-Feds lynchpin Matt Wright, has launched Dead Twins into stratospheric realms, both in potential and power. Its set at Andy’s was unignorable. It may very well already be the area’s top hard-rock act (which, incidentally and arguably, was a tag claimed by the now-defunct Feds).

That set wasn’t the highlight, however. That honor went to the tongue-in-somewhere hilarity of Boyfriends, Inc., a part-comedic, part-progressive improv hip hop act comprised of Denton’s Astronautalis and Miami’s Bleubird. The premise: two tourmates who are together so much on the road that they’ve, well, learned to take care of each other – and there’s no shame in it. “On the road, sometimes you just got to take a bath with your man,” Astronautalis rapped in day-glo shorts and a black tank; Bleubird’s matching getup included a Jazzercise tank). “It saves water. We’re so green, we’re clean.” OK, maybe not clean. But funny. Really funny.