Day four of the CMJ Music Marathon and the party to get to is the unofficial, sold-out Pitchfork showcase, happening in a Williamsburg warehouse by the East River. Many on the bill have, through the week, become fodder for small talk and big talk alike: New York's own Perfect Pussy, Welsh band Joanna Gruesome, Washington DC's Priests, Massachusetts group Speedy Ortiz, Canadian duo Yamantaka//Sonic Titan, Melbourne's Courtney Barnett and former Fiery Furnaces member Eleanor Friedberger, going solo with her electric guitar. Though there's another Pitchfork party on the last day of the conference, featuring acts working in dance genres, the blog is making a clear statement of intention with tonight's line-up: all but the last two acts on the above list are heavy rock bands fronted by women who spend a fair amount of time on stage screaming (and all the acts are fronted by women, though of course there need be no statement made by that fact).

But Pitchfork's party is one amongst many. It shouldn't be overlooked that there are a number of big official showcases happening at the same time, including sets by rhythm'n'blues heartthrob Nick Waterhouse; a showcase at the Mercury Lounge featuring Willis Earl Beal, Yuck and Leeds band Eagulls, and a double bill of Sweden's Nonono and LA-via-Australia Scandi-pop act Betty Who. Nor should the afternoon's events be made null by the evening's hullaballoo.

cmj day four
The Dismemberment Plan

The day of live shows begins at 2pm with a radio recording of The Dismemberment Plan inside Greenwich Village's Judson Memorial Church, which CMJ has co-opted for the week. Between the artist and press registration tables, on a stage beneath a stained glass window, the Washington DC band, into its 20th year, plays for a small gathering of enthusiastic registrants for Seattle college radio station KEXP. A short trek to the Lower East Side finds things heating up at the showcase of promo company Planetary inside Ludlow St bar Pianos. Blue Mountains hip hop duo Hermitude play for a small, dancing crowd downstairs; upstairs Toronto's Poor Young Things jam out classic Americana.

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cmj day four
Blind Boys Of Alabama

At 4.30pm, the arrival of a group most would never expect to play an afternoon club show has security keeping a crowd at bay. A CNN camera is set up by the downstairs stage and a man wearing a Planetary laminate is overheard telling a punter that the band has flown into New York to record an interview with the cable network to plug a new album. And to play one show. Soon, four suited men in sunglasses are led, hand-to-shoulder, through the middle of the room to the stage. It's the Blind Boys Of Alabama. The room now full, the Grammy winners settle into a run of stunning gospel standards, including Take Your Burden To The Lord, as well as the psychedelic hit Spirit In The Sky. “We like a noisy crowd,” the audience is informed. The cheering is suitably loud.

Over at Arlene's Grocery, Glasgow's Casual Sex play moustachioed disco rock on a surprise bill that will be headlined by Californian garage punks Crocodiles. “We've travelled 3,000 miles to be here,” the band's frontman Sam Smith informs. “Should I put on some lippy?” With his lips newly primed, Smith croons his way through a set of sleazy anthems with Pulp-like lounge overtones. Back at Pianos, Sydney duo Ginger & The Ghost have brought their own Arctic stage set to play against, including a fake iceberg (it's made of aluminium foil and canvas and squashes down to the size of hand luggage) and a kaleidoscopic film projection. In theatrical costume, the duo takes Florence & The Machine's chamber-pop blueprint and drags it into a more colourful imaginary world, led there by singer Missy's operatic voice. Such theatrics call for a foundation of great songwriting, and Ginger & The Ghost have a full bag of earworms in their possession. “Who's from Australia?” Missy asks the crowd and receives a few whoops. “Who's from New York?” she follows to a much greater response. “Yes!” she says in triumph.

cmj day four
Pefect Pussy

Inside the Pitchfork party, the warehouse fills up quickly as Courtney Barnett and her travelling rhythm section play their set, ending with the song that has brought them here, Avant Gardner. The crowd is on board but will soon split in two when Perfect Pussy swings into a set of short and brutal punk blasts. In a prim red dress, singer Meredith Graves (her real name only in a perfect world) laughs coyly between unrelenting shouting fits. A violent mosh pit sorts out the audience and, by set's end, the ratio of those fanatically cheering to those with hands in pockets is 50:50. Being this divisive will no doubt only serve the band well. For mine, it's one of the sets of the week, and not one easily, or well, followed by Priests. Intent on causing a fuss, singer Katie Alice Greer writhes and howls against a metallic dance-punk backing. It all translates as fairly insincere, not helped by a gimmick that has her throwing burritos into the crowd.

cmj day four
Joanna Gruesome - to gruesome to show you

Following another excellent set from Joanna Gruesome which again reveals them to be more concerned with songwriting and experimentation than many young acts on the CMJ schedule, more established outfit Speedy Ortiz brings '90s alt-rock to the midnight slot. The band has two albums under its belt, including this year's Major Arcana. The name Liz Phair has been dropped in reportage on the band and not for no reason: what we get tonight is fuzzy, melodic rock seemingly sprung directly from a hardcore source. The audience goes back to mosh mode, and when the PA speakers start to wobble and a body slams into the DJ desk, the band's singer, Sadie Dupuis, is forced to issue a warning: “We're gonna have to get Fugazi and stop.”

If this showcase can be taken as a sign of things to come, expect a lot more physical action at the next year's festivals.