JANUARY 31

He began a pub-rocker and then made bids for pure-pop and punk, but Nick Lowe has come back to somebody’s roots on his new The Impossible Bird. The album, which features local guitarist Bill Kirchen, only sometimes summons the melody to put across titles like “12-Step Program (To Quit You Babe),” but tunefulness is not a failing of Lowe’s back catalog. Opener Jim Lauderdale doesn’t have a back catalog, but his recent debut, Pretty Close to the Truth, provides a full complement of rootsy exuberance. At 8 p.m. at the Bayou, 3135 K St. NW. $10. (202) 333-2897. (Mark Jenkins)