The first song,"Wooden Ghost," is the one all over YouTube. Oh internet, you had me anticipating video projections and postmodern dance, of which there were none, but that just makes it all the more exciting that Explode Into Colors still totally exceeded my expectations, powering through a short set that left me humming and jiggling my left knee.

The second song, "Sharpen the Knife," has a beat that begs for reggae. Telepathic Liberation Army's Lisa Orth turns to me and says, "I'm hearing ESG, is that weird? Such tight basslines?" It's not weird at all, with the caveat that there's actually no bass in the band. A small cluster of 40-something Mission of Burma fans were debating from the back during soundcheck whether it was a six string bass or not, but nope, it does indeed appear to be a Danelectro guitar tuned way low, with plenty of reverb.

During the third song, singer/guitarist Claudia Meza grabs a maraca during the intro and crashes a cymbal with it repeatedly, while still wearing her guitar. For the fourth song, she puts her guitar down.

The fifth song sounds for a second like something Cadallaca might have written, before taking a sharp left turn into breakbeat territory. Drummer Lisa Schonberg sits. She hits hard, and her drumsticks make riveting trails in the red lights of the stage. Heather Treadway stands, playing percussion, keyboard and singing backing vox; her presence is calming somehow, amid the fervid chaos. Claudia stands between the two, playing arpeggio-heavy disco-riffs and moving in lateral circles by bending her knees.

• Sometimes you just can't use a flash, you know?

During the sixth song, I'm thinking about Phil Spector's wall of sound. The seventh song, "Heat," breaks into the unmistakable chorus "Bombs Over Baghdad" at the end, and with the eighth song, they're done, and I might be in love.