Due to the daunting logistics of club-hopping in New York City during CMJ Music Marathon week, the ideal plan is to find a one-stop-shop, and Wednesday night’s show at the Bowery Ballroom — featuring Deerhunter, Dan Deacon, No Age, White Williams and Ponytail — provided one of the best of the fest. (Nearly all of these groups are currently on tour, so check their MySpace pages for dates near you.)

This long evening kicked off with an explosive set from experimental Baltimore yowlers Ponytail, whose sound approximates a combustion of the Boredoms and Sonic Youth with Yoko Ono. The quartet’s two guitarists crafted intricate but bruising riffs and melodies driven by ballistic drumming while boisterous frontperson Molly (just Molly) shrieked, screamed and screeched unintelligibly over the top.

Next up were the much calmer White Williams, who built intricate layers of melody over throbbing electronic beats. Lead singer/keyboardist Joe Williams sang softly (occasionally opting for melodica) while the group served up droning, motorik grooves that alternated between hypnotic and lulling; imaginative animated visuals were projected onto a screen behind the band, beautifully complementing the sounds (as well as the band’s extremely low-key stage presentation).

Any thoughts of calm went straight out the window when powerhouse L.A. duo No Age took the stage to a deafening power chord that was approximately twice as loud as White Williams’ set. These guys (guitarist Randy Randall and drummer Dean Spunt, both of whom sing … kinda) are all about rock spectacle: roaring buildups and sizzling crescendos, jumping off of speaker cabinets and frequently bellowing “F— YEAH!” into the mics. At times the spectacle overtook the songs — some of which seemed to spend ages building up to not much — but nuance clearly is not the point of this group’s live shows (the set ended with about a dozen audience members onstage). Randall handed off his guitar to one of them — who quite obviously did not know how to play guitar — and then hoisted the dude onto his shoulders: a moment that perfectly sums up the band’s wild and exciting live show.

A Dan Deacon “gig” presents a bit of a contradiction, since it’s primarily him playing hypeman over chest-rattlingly loud recordings from his unhinged electro — but surprisingly danceable — album, Spiderman of the Rings. But he’s a hell of a hypeman: The stage was filled with audience members from the jump — he was rarely visible, except when clearing a circle in the crowd for various people to do solo dances — and he yelled boisterously during and between songs about his “RAD” friends and colleagues and how much they “RULE!” Deacon’s been embraced as a guru by the hipster crowd, but his set was all about fun, and it was nearly impossible not to succumb.

Deerhunter had the unenviable task of following Deacon — something they tried to talk the show’s organizers out of, singer Bradford Cox said onstage — and it didn’t help that they’ve toned down their live set considerably. Apparently some bandmembers felt that Cox’s onstage antics — cross-dressing, looooong monologues — were distracting too much from the music, and guitarist Colin Mee left the band early this month, only to rejoin immediately after Cox said he’d cool it. The group’s set was solid and intense — the songs often began slowly and quietly, building and swelling gradually — although it was definitely restrained compared with some of their earlier gigs. During the encore, however, some signs of friction appeared: While waiting for the rest of the bandmembers (one of whom was apparently on a cigarette break) to return to the stage, Cox threatened to launch into one of his long monologues if they didn’t return.

Cox kept talking, and eventually the bandmembers returned for the encore.