WINSOME WILLIAMSES

You might expect that the Williams Brothers, harmony-oriented power pop-rockers that they are, would be the types to want to shush any inevitable comparisons to the Everly Brothers. But they’re too smart for that; they went right on ahead and sang “Claudette” for their encore Saturday at the Lingerie, and it sounded just dandy, just like the rest of their too-short set.

Their twin vocals can actually stand up to the comparisons. Rhythm guitarist David Williams is ostensibly the lead singer, but the set--like the brothers’ current debut album--found brother Andrew singing harmony virtually full-time, in addition to his lead guitar duties. Used on uniformly strong material (some self-penned, some from celebrity friends), these voices and instruments landed in a nifty territory somewhere between bubble gum and whatever passes for “authenticity” these days.

If somewhat on the cleaner and lighter side, the Williamses are still about the closest thing we have right now to the glory days of the Plimsouls (with whom they used to play quite a bit, and with whom Andrew co-wrote “Inch by Inch”). The charisma on stage was less than overwhelming, but they are cute, and the music is quite good--and that two out of three ought to be enough to spell m-a-s-s success for the brothers sooner or later.