ASCENDING, AT LAST

Band: Blue in Heaven.

Personnel: Shane O’Neill, vocals, guitar; Eamon Tynan, keyboards; Declan Jones, bass; David Clarke, drums.

History: This Dublin band is a prominent member of the burgeoning Irish rock scene that includes such diverse groups as U2, Cactus World News and the Pogues. The members of Heaven met in high school. After playing a lot of gigs and making a series of demo tapes (the first produced by fellow Dubliner and U2 guitarist the Edge), the group was signed by Island in 1983. Blue in Heaven’s first album, “All the God’s Men,” was produced by Martin Hannett, known for his work with Joy Division and the Buzzcocks. Unfortunately, Hannett’s misguided production only helped earn the group’s debut a less-than-overwhelming response. But after extensive touring with groups like New Order and Echo & the Bunnymen, Blue in Heaven found its own identity and, by late 1985, was playing hard, explosive shows. The group’s new album on Island is “Explicit Material.”

Sound: Blue in Heaven’s press material identifies the early Rolling Stones, the Stooges, the Doors and Lou Reed as musical antecedents, though Heaven sounds as if it was more influenced by the way first-generation British post-punkers like Echo & the Bunnymen assimilated those sources. This is tight, edgy stuff, tinged with moody keyboards and charging toward some cathartic release that always remains simmering beneath the jangly surfaces. No great depths are plumbed in the lyrics, despite the bits of lapsed Catholicism implied in the group’s name and some of its imagery. But the point here is to create an aggressive mood of brash excitement, maintaining an air of expectant tension. In other words, standard issue post-punk 1986 rock ‘n’ roll.

Shows: The Palace Wednesday, Pacific Amphitheatre Thursday (with Art of Noise).