The indie music scene can be a notorious boystown, but at this year’s South-by-Southwest music fest, much of the buzz was reserved for a flock of chicks.

Sure, the annual indie industry get-together was headlined by the world’s most energetic corpse Iggy Pop and his reanimated band of proto-punk legends The Stooges.  Alongside fellow reunited punks The Buzzcocks and Meat Puppets, as well as agit-rap heroes Public Enemy, lyrical legend Rakim and pretentious keynote speaker Pete Townshend, there was a strong argument that elder statesmen were this year’s over-arcing theme.

But other than Iggy, who ended the fest just right by inviting the moshing masses onstage for their Stubbs amphitheatre encore, the best senior singer was Dap-Kings soul shouter Sharon Jones, so it was still advantage ladies.

The Pipettes, who played all over Austin’s city limits during their stay in the Texan capital, were a relatively unknown quantity coming in as their album, on hip imprint Memphis Industries, isn’t officially out in North America.

Still, release dates mean nothing in the modern world so their Wednesday night showcase at La Zona Rosa was rammed with curious folk treated to their polka dot-clad post-feminist update of the 60s girl group sound augmented by choreographed dance moves and hand jive routines.

They were also unbeatable on the adorability barometer, though Lily Allen gave it the old college try with her debut SxSW appearance, arriving on the Stubbs stage in a light blue summer dress with a beer and a smoke in each hand. She then proceeded to declare that she was drunk “because it’s 11” and call showcase sponsor, NME magazine, a bunch of fucking cunts.

Combine the Pipettes retro feel with Lily’s trainwreck drunkenness and you arrive at final Brit-chick breakout Amy Winehouse. Her first set, in a small, overcrowded rock club, happened over an hour late, but Amy finally emerged with a beehive hairdo, slathered on black eye makeup, tattooed arms and a sultry, smoky voice.

She cancelled almost all her gigs except that club show with a small horn section and her snappy male backup singers, an afternoon Fader magazine parking lot party  and a stint at La Zona Rosa backed up by Sharon Jones’ Dap Kings.

Still, the petite Winehouse’s voice was big enough and her stage presence charismatic enough to provide some meat to the bones of hype. Which is important, because word on the streets of Austin was that the singer made famous by her hit Rehab was on her way exactly there as soon as she flew back across the pond.