In a room a bit off of the beaten path on the west side of Austin, it felt a little bit like home. Talents from Detroit, Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor and other locations congregated at Victory Grill closer to the outskirts of town than the classic "downtown" of the city. What was more than just a short hike did not prevent a solid crowd from amassing for the Detroit Invades Austin hip-hop showcase at this year's festival.

Performances were stacked back to back in rapid-fire succession over the course of the evening, and we were treated to a plentiful sampler of the immense talent available and active within Detroit and the suburbs. The showcase was the product of Ilana Weaver's (aka Invincible)'s Emergence Media group.

Beginning the evening was a spirited engagement from Majestik Legend, originally not mentioned on the list of performers for the evening, and though the listing said they were performing only between sets, Michigan ex-pat DJ House Shoes and Ypsilanti's 14KT served as DJs for nearly all of the microphone men and women taking the stage. 14KT hit the stage as a DJ the day prior as well, supplying his skills to the Stones Throw Records showcase at Speakeasy Kabaret.

As an Ann Arbor resident for a while now, I relished the chance to see Now On perform - they've most recently moved to Los Angeles alongside DJ House Shoes and others, and I have not been able to catch a performance since. Though their performance was one of the first of the night, the crew kicked the room into high gear with DJ Haircut (otherwise known as Mayer Hawthorne and of Athletic Mic League fame) on the decks and singing, and emcees IX Lives and Jackson Perry ripping up the room.

Next up in close succession were female emcees Mae Day and Miz Korona alongside Marv Won, all of of whom I had not had the pleasure of hearing before. Both Mae Day and Marv Won employed long time Detroit native DJ House Shoes as their turntablist. House Shoes now resides in Los Angeles and spreads the gospel of Detroit hip-hop daily. With a nearly perfect sense of comic timing and an equally honed gift on the mic, Marv Won was a personal standout of the evening for me ranking nearly equally with Korona's gritty, realistic vocal style and lyricism to match.

I was able to get to the show early in the evening and stay for quite some time, unfortunately, missing the the last few acts, among them Invincible, Finale, Black Milk and Slum Village, in order to head back towards downtown to catch Human Eye. Unfortunately, the decision to leave was not a wise one.

Upon reaching Jaime's, the venue where they were scheduled to perform, I learned that Human Eye was not able to make the trip south to Austin. Asking around I wasn't able to get a reason why they were not able to come down, but it seem like The Terrible Twos who played earlier that evening, and are playing a day party I am hoping to be able to attend on Friday, seem to be picking up a few of their shows in an apparent sign of Michigan punk solidarity.

Day two: complete. Even with a bit of a down note to end the day, the good vibes in the room during the sets at the Victory Grill earlier in the evening made up for any bad ones that came about, in droves. Word on the street is that the venue sold completely out by the end of the night, and was getting mightily full even at the beginning. The emcees, DJs, and hype-men and women that took the stage at the DXSW showcase did Michigan proud indeed.

[This article is number three in a series of entries covering local artists traveling to Texas for a large music festival. Coverage follows until Sunday morning.]

Jeremy Peters covers what he likes to call the Underbelly of the Local Arts and Music Scene as a community blogger for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at 734-217-4570 or jeremyjohnpeters@gmail.com.