I’m going to be honest; early shows have never really been my thing. I like a little time to take off my dinner suit and put on my music critic hoodie. Plus it feels weird to be inside a darkened show room when it’s still light outside. Long story short, I long ago vowed never to set foot in a rock venue before 7:30. And then, last week, I saw this… AMAZING… music video.

Well played, Morning Teleportation, Well played. And so last night I took an early subway to The Mercury Lounge to see these guys live. On the way there I was asking myself: who, other than music reviewers, go to 6:30 shows on Thursday nights.

The answer, apparently, is a lot of people. The night started out slow, but by the time Morning Teleportation took the stage the room was packed. I guess when you’ve got an actual job (ha ha) to go to the next day, the early show is a safe middle ground between hangover-inducing parties and resting up.

Not to discount Morning Teleportation’s drawing power. They’ve got a hefty tour schedule; their next nine shows are in as many days. They’re signed under Isaac Brock’s (of Modest Mouse) record label Glacial Pace, and Brock himself mixed their debut album, Expanding Anyway. If the surprisingly large number of adoring fans in the audience is to be believed, they’re well on their way to upgrading to The Bowery Ballroom next time they visit New York City.

Photo by Michael Tessier

Morning Teleportation is touring New York with Nicos Gun, a band with the same set up (keys/synths, guitar, bass, drums) but an entirely different vibe. Nicos Gun plays punky dance music, sort of a dirty garage rock disco. Their two covers of the night were Velvet Underground’s “What Goes On,” and Blondie’s “Heart of Glass,” and as weird as it sounds, combining those two songs gives you a pretty good sense of Nicos Gun’s sound. Singer Barney Cortez forced his lyrics out in percussive rapid fire bursts. Harry Zelnick wasn’t a showy drummer, but the beats he laid down were killer, and Andy Black smoothed everything over with his tight bass lines.

Nicos Gun had a habit of putting on looping synth patches and letting them run underneath each song, something that usually seemed too easy and pointless; their sound was big enough as it is. All nitpicking aside, Nicos Gun was really, really good. They completely clicked together. If you like dancing, the early 80’s, classic punk, or all three, you should check these guys out.

Morning Teleportation is a psychedelic chameleon of a band, more impressive for their ability to immediately skip from beat to beat than for a particular sound. The main groove in their arsenal is very similar to Modest Mouse’s “Float On” one, a funky, indie-rock dance feel. They’ve also got some space rock, noise, power pop, psychedelic jams, and touches of bluegrass and southern rock. They mostly stick to a single texture, so their groove switching helps keep the music moving along and preserves its interest.

Unlike the unrestrained plethora of instruments used in their debut album Expanding Anyway, The band stuck pretty strictly to the few usual ones on hand. One exception was frontman Tiger Merritt’s talk box solos. Talk boxes are little effects devices with a plastic tube sticking out of the top. You can filter the sound coming out of your instrument by altering the shape of your mouth over the tube, allowing you to apply vocal sounds to your amplified instrument. It’s an old trick, and a really effective one.

At The Mercury Lounge, Morning Teleportation put on a fantastically high-energy show. Bassist Paul Wilkerson and Tiger Merritt have great chemistry. By the end of the night, Wilkerson and Merritt were laid out on the floor, Wilkerson taking off Merritt’s shoes and throwing them into the audience. Drummer Tres Coker stood up for the grand finale and he had his shirt off. Poor Travis Goodwin was still stuck in his cage of keyboards, but I guess he didn’t really have a choice. The audience – myself included – loved it.

Speaking of Goodwin, I was impressed by how well Morning Teleportation integrated the keys into their sound. Those rare but memorable moments when the synth line had the spotlight gave a clear identity to Morning Teleportation’s music, something that was otherwise hard to pin down. Goodwin’s backing keyboards also added important weight to the heavier, headbangier parts of their songs.

The highlight of the night was definitely “Expanding Anyway,” the title track from Morning Teleportation’s album, and the song used in the video above. What makes the song so great is that it conveys the blissful energy of their live show, through just the music itself. None of their other tracks do it nearly as right.

Morning Teleportation is still on its East Coast/Midwest tour. They’re playing TONIGHT at Brooklyn Bowl (still with Nicos Gun!), then heading West towards their Portland home. You can see their tour schedule on their myspace page. Expanding Anyway (the album) is available just about everywhere, including on Amazon and from Glacial Pace itself.