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→Power Chords and Riffs
Don't worry about counting the rhythm at first. Just play the intervals nice and slow and try to give them the same rhythmic space as appears in the tab. Once you get more comfortable making the power chord shape and moving between each pair of strings and changing positions, you should be able to start getting the rhythm a bit better. Can you recognize what song this is? Once you recognize the tune, the rhythm will become much easier. It is probably too difficult to play at full speed at this point, so play it nice and slow. This is the "acoustic jam" version. ;-)
If the rhythm is a bit difficult to get down, try playing it like this:
1 n 2 n 3 n 4 n 1 n 2 n 3 n 4 n
e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e
E-|-----------------|----------------|
B-|-----------------|----------------|
G-|.----------------|---------------.|
D-|.-9-9-9-x-x------|------5-x-7-7-x.|
A-|--7-7-7-x-x-5-5-x|7-7-x-3-x-5-5-x-|
E-|------------3-3-x|5-5-x-----------|
The "x"s are <u>muted strums</u>. This means to mute the strings by lightly pressing against them with your left-hand fingers and pluck the strings with your right hand. This creates a percussive, (basically) pitch-less sound, which is useful for filling time between notes. Now you are strumming on every half-beat (eighth note), which means there's less need to count and try to time your playing between beats. Now it should be easy to play the tab and discover the song.
Many rock songs are based around a small part called a "riff", like the one above. Riffs may incorporate some harmony, but are generally single notes or power chords. Sometimes a chord is thrown in or some different intervals, but their main function is melodic, not harmonic. The interaction of the riff with some other instrument(s) may create a more harmonic effect. They tend to repeat every 1, 2, or 4 measures. They can take focus as the lead part or serve as accompaniment for a melody or solo. Often they shift in and out of focus with a vocal melody. That's exactly what happens here. That's one of the reasons they are so successful and a primary usage of guitar in rock music - it creates a point-counterpoint interplay between instruments, which also creates harmony that feels less rigid and more subtle than simply strumming chords. And they're generally quite fun to play.