Written by DCist Music Contributor Jim Smalley.

With all the eating and drinking these past few weeks, we were looking to burn off some of the extra holiday flub. Which is why we were excited to check out D.C. electronic dancepunkers Supersystem on Saturday night at the Black Cat.

Following up openers Ris-Paul-Ric and French Toast , supersystem – formerly on Dischord Records as El Guapo – took their home stage before a full house and opened with “Miracle.” We parked ourselves right in front of the left main speaker just as the song’s opening middle eastern guitar riff rang out, because nothing fuels a dancing body like endless metronomic bass. It was clear the band was excited to be on familiar turf and there was plenty of good energy going around.

Keeping the vibe going strong, Supersystem slipped next into the wonderfully shallow “Born Into the World.” But that’s the thing with their sound – while the lyrics aren’t deep, they function perfectly in bridging the relentless bass with the band’s higher pitched electronic texturing, while serving to keep things upbeat and not too serious. Soon enough, we too were singing along about living above a flower store behind an iron door, all the while fearlessly flashing our white man’s overbite.

To the average listener, perhaps Supersystem’s sound may not change much song to song, and this has rubbed some the wrong way but you all know the drill with music – ya gotta experience it live. Especially electronica. It’s dancing music. And to our delight, they kept thumping over and over, and even treated us with two yet-unnamed new songs, while covering most of the tracks on their latest LP Always Never Again. In fact, most of the songs were jammed out a bit, keeping us happily up-tempo through the whole set.

Supersystem tried to sneak off after “Destroyer” but couldn’t get too far from the Cat’s encore calls. The boys quickly hopped back on stage and capped the show with unbelievably furious renditions of “Tragedy” and “Defcon” which had even the most sedate fans getting their groove on. By the end of the night, we were a little tired and definitely sweaty from the all the wiggling, but plenty euphoric and noticeably thinner.

Supersystem doesn’t have any local shows posted, but perhaps we can all comment them into playing again here very soon. Until then, let us know what you think about the recent 50-Cent price increase on pints of Red Room Ale. Booo!