Sergent Garcia Creates a Frenzy

Argentine rock en espan~ol group Arbol finished up its brisk set at the Roxy on Tuesday with the genre’s trademark attack of dissonant guitars, peppered with unusual touches of flute, electric violin and South American charango. The quintet sounded energetic to a fault, and slightly disorganized.

Half an hour later, the 12-piece Parisian tropical-rock combo Sergent Garcia was spitting out salsa riffs and creating dense layers of interlocking percussion, and the fans--who had listened politely to Arbol--flew into a dancing frenzy.

The lesson? The future of Latin rock might depend on its willingness to look for inspiration in the rich tradition of Afro-Caribbean music.

Led by the wiry, hyperactive Bruno Garcia, the band has much in common with both Fabulosos Cadillacs and Mano Negra. But unlike those seminal outfits, the Garcia gang (an international crew that includes five Cuban members) has a deep understanding of the rumba, which adds an extra kick to its ska-reggae frolics. In fact, some of the group’s instrumental segments sounded as traditional as something the folk ensemble Los Mun~equitos de Matanzas would play.

Lyrically, Garcia (who wrote most of the material on the debut album, “Un Poquito Quema’o”) pushed a highly politicized agenda of unity and tolerance. Like Ruben Blades and Manu Chao before him, he used the sheer dancability of his tropical stew to communicate these messages, placing himself a few notches above most rock en espan~ol bands.