MIRACLE MEN : This Substantially ‘Drenched’ Miracle Legion Might Even Drown Out Michael Bolton

New Haven, Conn., is known chiefly for great pizza and for Yale University, alma mater to George Bush, Cole Porter and the “Doonesbury” comic strip.

New Haven also has the dubious distinction of having given the world Michael Bolton, who spelled his name “Bolotin” during his scuffling days on the Elm City club scene.

On the plus side of the contemporary pop ledger, New Haven also has produced Miracle Legion, a solid alternative rock contender since the mid-’80s.

The band emerged in 1984 with “The Backyard,” an excellent EP that it put out on its own Incas label. The record rode along on a wistful jangle that, like a lot of that era’s college-rock, was a near-ringer for R.E.M. But singer-lyricist Mark Mulcahy was able to reach deep into a wellspring of memory and feeling that made it clear Miracle Legion was much more than a trend-hopper. The EP’s title track, in particular, is a fine evocation of the fragility and wonderment of early childhood. Although most of the songs on “The Backyard” could have been outtakes from “Murmur” or “Reckoning,” one song, “Closer to the Wall,” showed that Miracle Legion could escape the R.E.M. fold and move through tougher, Stones-oriented terrain.

Miracle Legion next took a step up to the independent Rough Trade label, where it put out three more records. By the third, “Me and Ray,” Miracle Legion had shrunk to an acoustic duo of Mulcahy and his songwriting partner, guitarist Ray Neal.

Wanting to rock again, Mulcahy and Neal recruited bassist Dave McCaffrey and a drummer named Spot, both of whom had played in the hard-edged Providence, R.I., band What Now. (It is this lineup that plays tonight at Bogart’s in Long Beach.)

Miracle Legion parted with Rough Trade (which subsequently went out of business), took a break, and then used a fresh batch of Mulcahy-Ray songs to land a deal with fledgling major label Morgan Creek (also home to Little Feat and Mary’s Danish).

The resulting album, “Drenched,” broadens Miracle Legion’s sonic and lyrical canvas, although Mulcahy’s reedy voice and a lingering jangle-propensity still occasionally recall that R.E.M. signature sound.

Once known for heart-on-sleeve emoting, Miracle Legion has come up with strangely ironic songs such as “Snacks and Candy,” which takes lilting musical material (a “Sweet Jane”-like riff and Turtles-style “ba-ba-ba” harmonies) and sets it against ominous lyrics recounting the infamous murder of a black youth by a white mob in Brooklyn. “Everything Is Rosy” is all scabrous sarcasm, a tough-rocking kiss-off to the “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” mind-set of the ‘80s.

Wistful expressions of troubled lovers’ fears still crop up in songs such as “Out to Play,” but the tougher currents running through “Drenched” make it anything but soppy.

Who: Miracle Legion.

When: Thursday, May 21, at 9 p.m. With Mark Davis and the Inklings.

Where: Bogart’s, in the Marina Pacifica Mall, 6288 E. Pacific Coast Highway, Long Beach.

Whereabouts: Take the San Diego (405) Freeway to the Seal Beach Boulevard exit, go left, then right on Westminster Avenue and right again on Pacific Coast Highway. Bogart’s is just past the intersection of Westminster and PCH, on the left.

Wherewithal: $10.

Where to call: (310) 594-8975.