Although fellow CL contributor Deborah Ramos had high expectations when she reviewed El Ten Eleven in April, I arrived at Ybor's cavernous Orpheum with next-to-none. All I knew about the band was that they made post-rock, a genre I happily devour like fresh-out-of-the-toaster-oven pizza bagels. The quality of the music can be best shown through my bodily problems the next morning — a neck sore from head-nodding and an upper torso rank with dance.

The first opener, YoLaJa, was an amalgamation of post-rock and metal. For those who aren't familiar with post-rock, it's an instrumentally-driven form of rock music. It was aptly summarized by one of the seminal groups in the genre, Explosions In The Sky as "cathartic mini-symphonies." Most of their music was along these lines, but there were certain aspects that I couldn't really get into; namely, the band's metal-influenced shredding and drumming. At times, the loudness of the music and the speed of the music were too quick and loud for me. There were definitely some inspired bits, though, including an apocalyptic composition replete with death's door thudding drums and a undulating, devilish bass line.

The next band, Tampanian threesome Ettison, brought to mind comparisons to late-90s indie rockers American Football. Both bands employ a heartfelt approach to music, and both groups tend to have spiraling solos overlapping their lyrics. However, Ettison traded American Football's sedating melancholy for a pop-punk aesthetic. When I heard the borderline-whine of lead singer Christian Stewart, I immediately thought of mid-2000s pop-punkers Fall Out Boy and New Found Glory.

When L.A. electronic musician Baths hit the stage, I felt like I was at Ybor's Czar Bar. Everything seemed to point to the trappings of the hammer-and-sickled trendster-friendly joint — the deep v-neck he was wearing, the difficulty of the music, the danceability of the songs. The third musician up, he "played" his laptop and fiddled with knobs on his synthesizer — dropping boogie beats and weird squelchy noises as he danced around in place. It was a bit too arty and experimental for my melody-loving taste, but it was never boring.

And then there was El Ten Eleven. Though the band started their set with supposed misfires — jokingly apologizing for "Tampa difficulties" instead of "Technical difficulties," I never heard anything sound awry. But, to be fair, I spent more time rocking out to the music than trying to pinpoint exactly why the band stirred me so much.

Perhaps it was the undeniably cool 1977 Carvin guitar/bass doubleneck. Kristian Dunn wielded this oddity — and the ability to play both guitar and bass likely was the reason the band could pull off such a full sound with only two people. They were as musically poignant at playing dark and seedy electronica with two people as The Faint are with five.

One of the first tracks was "Jumping Frenchman of Maine," a cut from their latest album, 2008's These Promises Are Being Videotaped. Live, the band resembled electronic melody masters Ratatat played though a 1982 Atari — full of crisp looping and 8-bit bloops and blips. Not too long after, they covered another track from that release, and a favorite for music nerds, Radiohead's "Paranoid Android." They mostly played the breakdown electronic portion of the song, but the sliver of they played was enough to sate the aficionados. Though, I have to admit my ignorance and note that I missed another music fan favorite cover they played, Joy Division's "Disorder." (Probably because I was in dancing-happily-la-la-land.)

"My Only Swerving" from their self-titled first record was the highlight of the night for me. The song sedatingly dripped with a sidewinding guitar loop that brought to mind, of all people, Snoop Dogg and his weed-whacked serenity from 1993's "Gin and Juice." From their upcoming album they played "Falling," which included a bow strummed across the guitar, a la R.E.M. and Sigur Rós — and the triumphantly noodly "Ian MacKaye Was Right," which had Dunn's hands shuffling up and down the fret like a grabby teenager.

After dancing more than I had ever danced at a show and getting a bit of headache from all the nodding, it was time to head home. But, before I left, I thought I'd go out of the way for the loyal, charming, beautiful Creative Loafing readers and try to get a setlist. I approached Drummer Tim Fogarty, who didn't have one on hand, but he volunteered kindly to write down all the tracks in order. What a nice guy. Here they are:

8/10/2010 Setlist

Ya No

The Sycophants Are Coming

Jumping Frenchman of Maine

Adam and Nathan Totally Kick Ass

Paranoid Android (Radiohead cover)

Fanshawe

3 Plus 4

Ian MacKaye Was Right

Falling

Living on Credit Blues

Marriage is the New Going Steady