ROCK INSURRECTIONISTS

Band: The Communards.

Personnel: Jimmy Somerville, vocals; Richard Coles, keyboards. Touring band: Sarah Jane Morris, vocals; June Miles-Kingston, drums; Jo Pretzel, saxophone; David Renwick, bass, keyboards; Audrey Riley, cello; Joss Pook, viola; Annie Stevenson and Sally Herbert, violin.

History: One of the more unlikely figures in pop music, plain-looking, falsetto-voiced Somerville is a staunch gay rights activist whose life style forced him to leave his intolerant hometown of Glasgow for the freer climate of London when he was 18. There he helped form Bronski Beat, a techno-pop trio that hit the top of the British charts with Somerville’s autobiographical “Smalltown Boy” and the gay anthem “Why?” in 1985. Dissatisfied with the Bronskis’ increasingly commercial direction and decreasing political commitment, Somerville left the group in ’85. Somerville teamed up with old friend Coles, a classically trained multi-instrumentalist, and the duo named themselves the Communards after a group of romantic revolutionaries who engineered a desperate Parisian insurrection in 1871. On a more modern note, the duo’s updating of Thelma Houston’s disco classic “Don’t Leave Me This Way” has hit the top of the British charts and become an American dance-club sensation. It’s included on their debut MCA album, “The Communards.”

Sound: The Communards’ message can often be as strident as Somerville’s voice (sample lyric: “Our love is like forbidden fruit”), but there’s an angelic, choir-boy resonance to his singing that can make the often threatening (to straights) themes seem innocently romantic. Somerville’s high-pitched wail, combined with guest vocalist Morris’ gruff, soulfully masculine style, creates some interesting gender-bending interplay. The Communards’ material is a mixed bag, ranging from the Middle Eastern-tinged “So Cold the Night” to a campy reworking of the torch classic “Lover Man” to high energy electro-dance music. All of the Communards’ material is infused with a “out of the closet and into the clubs” theatricality.

Shows: The Palace, tonight.