Mon. Jan. 22 

 You can't keep a good gal down. Kristin Hersh was once (may still be, given the state of reunions these days) the leader of Throwing Muses and of the punk-rockin' 50 Foot Wave. She's also a solo artist, where she lets her softer side out. She's also one of the sharpest knives in the tool kit when it comes to being savvy about the rock 'n' roll biz, which is a way of saying she's been around the block and back ... and makes us want to come back. Endurance is far from a given in this disposable age of pop culture. Hersh and her acoustic guitar will make some moody, melancholic music at the Newbury street Newbury Comics store on Monday Jan. 22 at 6 p.m. It's a free gig in support of her new disc "Learn To Sing Like a Star." Get there plenty early. These free Newbury gigs can be pretty cool, by the way. We saw - of all things - Iggy and the Stooges at one a couple years back and were almost in awe of it all. Iggy doing Iggy! With the Stooges! At a store! Full-throttle, but muted!

332 Newbury St., 617-236-4930 newburycomics.com

Mon. Jan. 22

 If sad songs say so much - as Bernie Taupin had Elton John sing - then Mark Eitzel says a mouthful. The sometime leader of the American Music Club is the master of the dour and the downbeat, the maudlin and the morose. Put it this way: Nick Drake may have in the '70s, but his creative spirit and sense of loss were reborn in Eitzel. Sustaining a career based on such material is not easy, especially when you're in clubland. In a theater, Leonard Cohen can do this more easily; in a club, many people are out to have "fun" or some degree of it, not experience the art of the song. So, Middle East Upstairs, which he plays Monday January 22. He's got no new album to that's one of the challenges Eitzel takes on in a small venue such as the promote, so expect Eitzel to draw from his deep, dark, truthful catalog. Eitzel does have an album called "Love Songs for Patriots," so, maybe, depending on what happens Sunday in Indianapolis, his show will be the place to go. Drew O'Doherty opens at 9. Tickets: $12.

472 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-864-3278 mideastclub.com

Sun. Jan. 21

And you thought the year-in-review pieces had all been done? Not so. Dave Goodman and Marc Stern, who helm the 12-year-old WMBR radio show "Radio with a View," are taking their gig to the live stage Sunday January 21 at 4 p.m. They're at Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway, and they'll be presenting the 2006 Chutzpah Awards, or recalling "the most outrageous things said or done by public figures during the past year." Is it just us or is 2006 particularly fertile territory? Maybe, it's just that every year seems better/worse than the last, but we've got to figure hypocritical Republican congressmen and evangelicals take a bit of a thumping. "2006 was enormously fertile," says Goodman. "Almost every week on the air we say 'What the hell is going on?' It's never ending. I tend to be an optimist and see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I understand people who see the tunnel at the end of the light. I'm a card-carrying leftist, but it's not just leftys - it's conservatives, retired generals, people from all stripes saying we've been duped. Marc and I try to be somewhat entertaining and bring some levity to it. If you didn't laugh, you'd go out of your mind." Stern and Goodman will also bring on some like-minded souls, Singer-activist Dave Lippman and George Shrub (the singing CIA agent), comic Bartunde Thurston and our favorite local Bush supporter satirists Billionaires for Bush (in photo, during rally), It costs $20, which might seem steep but the bucks go to the Family Nurturing Center and the Poor People's Uniited Fund.

255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville, 617-591-1616 jtoffbroadway.com

Sat. Jan. 20 

They really only existed for a brief moment in time - consider the Beatles longevity when stacked up against the Rolling Stones, The Who and the Kinks. But they wrote more than 300 songs and these are songs our descendents will be playing long after we're pushing up daisies. Now, there are too many Beatles tribute shows and tours and too many lookalike bands, of which, Beatle Juice is none of. The Boston-based quintet, fronted by Boston (the band) singer Brad Delp, got together on a whim 14 years ago, playing in drummer Muzz's basement. They said "Why not do a gig?" and played a Salem, Mass. club billed as a group playing "all Beatles, all night." "It started as a hobby. I didn't want to draw attention into who was in the band," says Delp, unwilling to ride any Boston fame. But that evolved into Beatle Juice, which holds forth many weekends at Johnny D's in Somerville, including Jan. 20. Delp, as a kid, saw the Beatles at Suffolk Downs Aug. 18, 1966 and, well, he was smitten. When he's not playing with the band Boston - not a frequent gig - he's Beatle Juice's main man, able to handle John, Paul and George vocal parts. Delp credits keyboardist/guitarist Steve Baker as the guy who allows Beatle Juice to handle all the complicated songs the Beatles couldn't (or wouldn't) pull off outside the studio when they stopped touring.
"We're as busy as we wanna be," says Delp, now 55. A show consists of two sets, about 60 songs total, with the guys starting around "Please, Please Me" and ending around "Golden Slumbers." (Delp says they actually like putting "I Saw Her Standing There" at the end now, 'cause it's such an uplifting rocker.) In their rep, they have about 110 possibilities, and while there are some essentials, the set changes by about 20 songs a night.

Sat. Jan. 20

We've known Steve Sweeney since the heyday of Boston comedy, the early '80s. Check out the DVD "When Stand Up Stood Out" - they're all there, Bobcat, Clarke, Leary, Poundstone, Sweeney. Odd thing is, Sweeney is just in there for a flash, and he was a much more integral part of the scene than the movie suggests. And he still is. Yes, the others have moved on to other areas, and Sweeney spent a stint at WZLX as the morning host, but Sweeney's never really left the Boston circuit and Boston is better for it. No one does a better take on Bawston attitude or accent; no one treats the drunken heckler with as much scathing aplomb. (Sweeney's been in recovery for more than a decade.) Our relationship: I've written about him and golfed with him. He's funnier than I am, and a better golfer. He's also a pretty serious man off-stage. But on-stage he's a hoot, and there's something comforting in knowing one of the kings of comedy back then and knowing he is still up there now. His latest home is the Comedy Connection and he's there at 8 p.m. Saturday Jan. 20. The second (10:45) show that night - and the 7 p.m. show Sunday - will be done by former "Saturday Night Live" comic Tracy Morgan. The Connection's slapped an "X" rating warning on this one, which costs $32. Sweeney is three bucks less.

Faneuil Hall, second floor, 617-248-9700 comedyconnectionboston.com