When Mahlathini & the Mahotella Queens break into English on their recent album, Stoki Stoki, it’s to deliver messages of harmony for the new South Africa: “Let us unite and be one/Divided we fall, together we stand,” they croon in “Masibambaneni.” But then, harmony has been this band’s project for more than 30 years. The group’s buoyant combination of Mahlathini’s growly bass and the Queens’ high vocals, as well as its mix of South African timbres and African-American rhythms, melds the indigenous and the universal, the earthy and the utopian. At 8 p.m. at the Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria. $15. (703) 549-7500. (Mark Jenkins)