The main feeling fans bring to a Ben Lee performance is one of protective fondness. The clean-cut teenager from a comfortable suburb of Sydney, Australia, first began growing up in public at the age of 14 with homemade tapes that showed an advanced awareness of love and heartbreak. He then disappointed with the first album from his band Noise Addict and subsequently lived up to his considerable promise on "Grandpaw Would," a solo album that sounded coy but not cloying.

Teenage years can be the toughest, but Lee's possible artistic growing pains were the furthest thing from the minds of those waiting to get into Lee's show at the Electric Lounge. Rather, the size of the crowd at Grand Royal's showcase at Austin's annual South by Southwest music conference reflected industry interest in the young songwriter's music.

From all appearances, Lee is doing pretty well anyway -- at least artistically. As on his soon-to-be-released album, "Something to Remember Me By," the now-18-year-old Lee sounded more mature, and he introduced some new twists to his basic lo-fi pop. But even though he's slowly growing out of the naivete that helped get him attention, Lee is still awkward enough to endear.

"This song is called mmmm Love," Lee mumbled inaudibly. "It's about mmmmmm ...." Luckily, his songs speak more articulately -- mostly about the pain of misunderstanding girlfriends. The songs that went over best were short and punchy, and the show's pace slowed considerably during Lee's strumming anthems.

Lee's considerable but still-developing talent was best summed up by one of his new songs, during which he sang, "Chronologically I know you're young/ but when you kissed me, you bit my tongue." The song would sound tacky coming from anyone even a few years Lee's senior, but his age and innocence gave it real em