The Frank & Walters: New-Wave Baptism

Ssshh, don't tell the Frank & Walters what year it is. Or what decade, for that matter. A week ago Thursday at the Middle East, in the first of six Boston-area shows for the band this month, the Irish trio from Cork kicked up a dustbowl of old new-wave ghosts with a bevy of bright, crisp melodies and soaring vocals. Yet this stuff sounded utterly fresh and invigorating after a half-decade's worth of murky anthems to navel-gazing. Although virtually unknown in this country, the Franks (who took their name from two "mad characters" in Cork) have built a following of sorts back home since forming in 1990. They headlined the second stage at the 1993 Reading Festival and snared an opening slot during the Divine Comedy's successful tour last year. But where the Comedy -- read Neil Hannon -- are all sarcastic sexual come-on and venomous social putdown in the manner of Pulp, the Frank & Walters are open-hearted and earnest without being cloying.

Concentrating on material from their infectious new Indian Ocean EP (Setanta), the band showcased a lean yet robust chiming guitar-and-vocal sound that brought to mind the heyday of groups like Big Country, the Proclaimers, and -- at certain moments -- Echo and the Bunnymen sans that group's brooding menace. They crashed cleanly into "Fast Anthony" to open a 45-minute set loaded with hooks and charm. Singer/bassist Paul Linehan's vocals rang clear and bracing as a church bell on Sunday morning, his voice serving as a kind of clarion call for the gig -- or what he referred to "as a Baptism of sorts for us."

Paul's younger brother, guitarist Niall Linehan, and their lifelong neighbor, drummer Ashley Keating, rode the crest of beauties like "Pathways" and "Indian Ocean" to their shimmering conclusions. "If you don't mind, I'll sail along with the breeze," sang Paul Linehan, coasting high above -- and beyond -- the "modern" rock, electronica, and trip-hop styles that define so much of today's imported pop. At first blush, it might appear the band's particular brand of '80s-style pop is hardly relevant in the cut-and-paste multimedia of the late '90s. But if relevance is, in some small way, still measured by good songs, solid musicianship, and an individual artistic approach, then the Frank & Walters are completely current, and right on time.

-- Jonathan Perry

(The Frank and Walters return to the upstairs room at the Middle East in Central Square, Cambridge this Thursday, October 16, and next, October 23, at 10:30 p.m.; call 864-EAST. They also play on October 19 and 26 at the Burren in Somerville's Davis Square beginning at 9 p.m.; call 776-6896.)