Pop Music : Odd Pairing at Universal: Zepplin, Buzzcocks

Here he comes, all puffy in a big-collared Desert Storm-camouflage jumpsuit, Tortelvis, lead singer for Dread Zeppelin, crooning “Hound Dog” at the Universal Amphitheatre on Saturday while his band persists in playing some warped version of Led Zeppelin’s “Emigrant Song.”

Dread Zeppelin may only have one joke--Led Zeppelin tunes done reggae-style by a band fronted by an Elvis imitator--but it’s a richly textured joke. The band manages to parody the pomposities of rock-concert ritual as dead-accurately as P.D.Q. Bach does for its classical equivalent. But as funny as the band may have been, its 90-minute set was about 75 minutes too long.

When Britain’s near-legendary punk-rock Buzzcocks took the stage, a curtain opened to reveal four men whanging away in front of a bright cloth backdrop, looking something like a clip from an old episode of “Hullabaloo.”

They played through equipment that seemed cheaper than any self-respecting group would use for a battle of the bands at a local park. They fiddled around a lot between songs, and their trebly, noisy, glorious guitar sound supported singer Pete Shelley’s nasal whine just right.

It was classic punk-rock, much harder-edged than the group’s lame “comeback” tour last year. At this remove, the Buzzcocks’ short, literate pop sketches seem closer to the craftsmanship of the Kinks than to their anarchist peers.