Cobra Starship: “Live, we are definitely more of a rock band.”

As far as I could tell, there was only one band at this summer’s Vans Warped Tour stop at the Comcast Center that had its own dance. While the modern-punk-heavy show was more musically diverse than in previous years, there still wasn’t anyone else like Cobra Starship. Their take on ’80s synth-rock — musically serious, attitudinally flip and over the top — stood out like a non-sore thumb. And the combination of icy synths, winning melodies and that stupid-yet-awesome dance made “Guilty Pleasure” not only a hit single but one of the most memorable rays of sunshine on that rain-filled day.

Cobra Starship bassist Alex Suarez remembers the Warped Tour with similar fondness.

“I had never been to Warped Tour ever before, so I didn’t know what to expect,” he says. “But I think between us and a bunch of our friends like The Academy Is … and The Gym Class Heroes, I think it made it a lot easier for us.”

He remembers a lot of people coming out to see the band for the first time, but there sure were a lot of people familiar with the New York-based quintet, which first made a splash with the single “Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)” from the Snakes on a Plane soundtrack.

The Cobra Starship sound — like a mix of ’80s pop styles that’s so seamless you can’t quite put a finger on any particular band they’re aping — is a function of their upbringing, Suarez says.

“We’re all children of the ’80s and grew up around a lot of that stuff. We were into all things ’80s. I was more of the ’80s metal kind of guy, but I was also into Duran Duran and Devo. But we’re all just trying to have a good time.”

That extends to keyboard player Victoria Asher playing the dreaded keytar: “Why not step it up a notch,” Suarez says, “and go for the whole ’80s thing?”

That’s been the case since their first album, 2006’s While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets, which was all but technically a solo album from frontman Gape Saporta, formerly of Midtown; last year’s Viva la Cobra!, with the production help of Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump established a true group sound.

“The City Is at War” would be an acidly noirish dance-rocker, except it works more in Miami Vice-style pastels. “Damn You Look Good and I’m Drunk (Scandalous)” sounds like a New Kids on the Block demo with a lot less preciousness; “Prostitution is the World’s Oldest Profession (And I, Dear Madame, Am a Professional)” is a chilly dance-floor filler and of course there’s the indefatigable “Guilty Pleasure” (“I came here to make you dance tonight!”).

There’s a lot more guitar and a lot fewer electronics in the Starship live show, and Suarez hopes that that’ll also be true of the new album that the group has started recording, of songs they wrote on the Warped Tour. They hope to have it out in the first few months of next year.

“Live, we are definitely more of a rock band. On record, we’re a very synth-heavy band — a lot of electronic drums and keyboards and stuff like that. So I think it would be really neat if we could make our new record a really nice blend of how we actually are live, and have the synthetic elements. Because it’s two whole different worlds.”

The band started as a project of Saporta’s with help from friends in other bands, but now Cobra Starship is the main priority of all the members, Suarez says, and if that means that This Is Ivy League, featuring Suarez and Cobra bandmate Ryland Blackinton, can’t do full tours, that’s OK for now. (They just did a record in the spring and hope to start another one in the Cobra Starship touring break next month.)

The legend of Cobra Starship has it that Saporta started the band after a spiritual journey in the desert and an encounter with a cobra. Suarez says that the cobra hasn’t made himself known in the past few years.

“No, they stopped partying a long time ago. Gabe didn’t return some of his text messages one time and they stopped contacting each other.”

Nothing left to do then, it would appear, but to carry on making records and having fun.

“Only having fun. Always having fun.”

Cobra Starship, Forever the Sickest Kids, Hit the Lights and Sing It Loud are at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, 79 Washington St., Providence, tomorrow night at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance, $17 the day of the show. Call (401) 331-5876 or go to www.etix.com.

David Byrne, co-founder of Talking Heads, got together with Brian Eno for the first time in 30 years to make Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, and he’ll do songs from that record, his Heads days and more during his show at the Zeiterion Theatre, 684 Purchase St., New Bedford, Sunday night at 8. Tickets are $65, $55 and $40 and can be gotten at the box office, by calling (508) 994-2900 or by going to www.zeiterion.org.

The Schemers continue their loose reunion at Jake’s, 373 Richmond St., Providence, on Saturday night. Call (401) 453-5253.

rmassimo@projo.com