POP MUSIC REVIEW : Tribe Fuses South African Rhythm, Rock

Tribe After Tribe’s fine fusion of hard rock and South African rhythm landed the trio in a kind of mystic realm Thursday night at the Coconut Teaszer, to a shimmering, complex sound somewhere between the epic noise of Led Zeppelin and the modern world beat of Peter Gabriel.

That trip came via some long instrumental jams between the verses, as if to further demonstrate the always astonishing power of a single guitar, bass and drum kit. With blond dreads hanging to his chest, guitarist-singer Robbi Robb took the band through 90 minutes of charged rock, opening the show with a kind of blues-metal number and doing his best Paul Rodgers drawl.

As on Tribe’s recent “Love Under Will” album, the Teaszer show offered a convincing musical mix of cultures, played with some finesse by these native South Africans. Drummer Chris Frazier was MVP for much of the night, his aggressive non-Western beats blending comfortably in the hard rock context.

Even with his earthquake joke featuring a “Shake, Rattle and Roll” punch line, Robb was vaguely self-absorbed on stage, though playing to an audience clearly crowded with friends of the band.

Near the show’s end, he put his guitar down to slash at the strings with his hair. Silly guitar-hero stuff, but in a band with enough chops and musical ideas to make it worth hearing.