Friends With Benefits.

Scenes From Saturday Night's Hoodie Allen Show at the South Side Ballroom.

Hoodie Allen's third show in Dallas was his biggest one yet: His first show in town, from last May at the Prophet Bar, paled in size comparison to Saturday's affair at the South Side Ballroom — proof positive that his model of releasing his music online for free does seem to be working.

Furthermore, on this third stop, which came as part of Allen's so-called “Party With Your Friends Tour,” Allen also capably proved that he knows how to throw a great party. And he indeed brought along some pals to help him showcase this much: New York's D-WHY, Minneapolis' Mod-Sun and regular Allen collaborators OCD: Mosh and Twist each also appeared as part of this bill.

The party started early, too. Well, the anticipation did, at least, as a handful of fans camped out at the venue starting at as early as 4 a.m. to start camping out for prime venue standing spots. By 9 a.m., at least 10 groups of fans had gathered outside of the venue, and, as the day continued on, the line only grew. The show, of course, didn't start until some 10 hours later, but by the time doors finally opened, the crowd's fervor had barely waned.

Those early arrivers were rewarded with high-energy sets from the openers, but, still, the reason for all this crowd eagerness was made rather clear throughout the night, as fans chanted “Hoodie!” during each and very available break in the music.

Finally, as his live band preceded onto stage and prepared themselves, Allen ran and jumped onto the small platform his stage hands had erected center stage and started his set — or so one assumes. Allen was performing, but it was tough to hear him over the screams from his fans. Still, Allen did well to please this hyper crowd, performing 20 songs over the course of his set, photographing his crowd, tossing cakes into his fans' outstretched hands and, at one point, moving his stage out to the back of the room, by the soundboard, so as to get closer to the fans who couldn't squeeze their was up by the crowded stage area.

He finished with a bang, too. After a string of acoustic songs, Allen brought OCD out to join him for a song before an encore of his songs “No Faith in Brooklyn” and “No Interruption,” which preceded a night-closing set from DJ Fresh Direct, who kept the party going and the crowd dancing as Allen greeted his fans by the merch booth.

Overall, the “Party With Your Friends Tour” was definitely a party. There's no denying that.