Pop

Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music.

ASHLEE SIMPSON (Sunday) With her engaging demeanor and rock-star pluck, Ashlee Simpson is, despite her early lip-synching woes, fast leaving her sister Jessica behind in the tabloids. As a vocalist, Ashlee can pout, howl and sass it up, which allows her a dimension beyond the spun sugar of teenage pop. 7 p.m., North Fork Theater, 960 Brush Hollow Road, Westbury, N.Y., (516) 334-0800; $39.50. (Laura Sinagra)

BON JOVI (Monday and Tuesday) Jon Bon Jovi's band conquered the airwaves in the 1980's and 90's by sticking together everything catchy about 70's rock: Bruce Springsteen's earnestness, Led Zeppelin's crunch, Boston's harmonies and lyrics that paint romance as nothing less than a titanic adventure. 7:30 p.m., Madison Square Garden, 33rd Street and Seventh Avenue, Manhattan, (212) 465-6741; $49.50 to $99.50. (Jon Pareles)

BRIGHT EYES, FEIST, MAGIC NUMBERS (Tonight and tomorrow) The singer-songwriter Conor Oberst is still perhaps too jittery to resonate as a New Dylan to Old Dylan fans. But his emphatic wisdom, candid political indignance and nuanced wine-soaked laments make him one of the best songwriters of his generation. The warm-voiced Feist is a collaborator of the electroclash queen Peaches and the indie collective Broken Social Scene. Her best songs are quirky, plucked jazz numbers that make her sound like a hipper Norah Jones. London's Magic Numbers, with their diffuse take on 60's harmonies, round out the bill. 8 p.m., Landmark Loews Theater, 54 Journal Square, Jersey City,(866) 468-7619; $25. (Sinagra)

MARSHALL CRENSHAW (Sunday) Marshall Crenshaw's songs seem to roll off the guitar in a casual blend of pre-1970's styles - folk-rock, surf-rock, country and above all, the Beatles - that put melody first. With his winsome tenor, he delves into the ways love goes right and goes wrong, from distant yearning to the aftermath of infidelity, hiding turmoil within the chiming tunes. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette Avenue, East Village, (212) 239-6200; $20. (Pareles)

RAY DAVIES (Monday) The Kinks singer Ray Davies performs here in connection with a couple of minireleases, one a benefit five-song EP pegged to Thanksgiving Day, reportedly inspired by recent attempts to better understand the United States. One assumes he will also play classics from his band's catalog and tell some stories, too. 8 p.m., Supper Club, 240 West 47th Street, Manhattan, (212) 921-1940; $65. (Sinagra)

ROBERTA FLACK (Tomorrow) Behind the gentle, tremulous voice that confided hits like "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is long knowledge of the continuum of blues, gospel, soul and jazz. Ms. Flack can use just a touch of rawness to make her songs hit home. 8 p.m., B. B. King's Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144; $65. (Pareles)

ARLO GUTHRIE (Tomorrow) Forty years after releasing "Alice's Restaurant," this folk-music scion is still revising his songs to tweak the powers that be. He performs his populist story-album, which begins with "Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago...," over this holiday weekend. 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 501-1390; $38 to $55. (Sinagra)

HOT 97 PRESENTS DIP SET (Tonight) Hot 97 D.J.'s Funkmaster Flex and Angie Martinez celebrate the refurbishment of the Bronx's opulent Paradise Theater with a show featuring members of the Harlem rap crew Dip Set: Juelz Santana ("There It Go (The Whistle Song)" ) and the rappers Jim Jones and Cam'ron. 10 p.m., Paradise Theater, 2403 Grand Concourse, Bronx, ticketmaster.com; $30. (Sinagra)

HOT TUNA (Tomorrow) The guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and the bassist Jack Casady started Hot Tuna as a side project from Jefferson Airplane, but it has now long outlasted the original band. Mr. Kaukonen plays spiky, fingerpicked blues that calmly contemplate death and loss, still harking back to the Rev. Gary Davis, with Mr. Casady's bass shadowing him from below. 8 p.m., Beacon Theater, 2124 Broadway, at 74th Street, (212) 496-7070; $38.50 to $48.50. (Pareles)

B. B. KING (Sunday through Tuesday) The great bluesman B. B. King and his latest guitar called Lucille can, on a good night, summon all the tribulation and joy and resilience of the blues. 8 p.m., B. B. King's Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144; $80 in advance (sold out), $85 at the door. (Pareles)

KORN (Tuesday) This band helped popularize a brand of late-90's rock that featured chunky chords and angry raps about childhood mistreatment and the adult fallout. Korn's latest video humorously features rappers Lil Jon, Snoop Dog, Xzibit and David Banner pretending to be the band. 8 p.m., Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 564-4882; $37 in advance, $42 at the door. (Sinagra)

THE MENDOZA LINE (Tomorrow) This local band has a knack for deceptively lilting songs with cutting lyrics about betrayal, jealousy and disappointment. Its best choruses turn on phrases like "It will be the same without you." 4 p.m., Sound Fix Records, 110 Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 388-8090; free. (Sinagra)

METERS (Tonight) Hurricane Katrina could not drown New Orleans syncopation. It lives on with the reunion of the Meters, the definitive New Orleans funk band since 1967. It has backed others, but saved its snappiest, trickiest grooves for its own tracks. With Art Neville on keyboards, George Porter Jr. on bass, Leo Nocentelli on guitar and Joseph Zigaboo Modeliste on drums, they open up nooks and crannies of the beat to carry every hip into irresistible motion. 8 p.m., Nokia Theater Times Square, 1515 Broadway, at 44th Street, ticketmaster.com, (212) 307-7171; $50. (Pareles)

MIGHTY SPARROW (Sunday) The songwriter and singer who revolutionized calypso after World War II still has sly rhymes and ebullient dance moves, and he is still coming up with up-to-the-minute topical songs. 7 p.m., Apollo Theater, 253 West 125th Street, Harlem, (212) 531-5305; $35 to $75. (Pareles)

AARON NEVILLE (Tomorrow) Aaron Neville of New Orleans's Neville Brothers brings a resolute, pure high vocal quaver to funky R & B, jazz-pop and gospel music, swinging confidently while still conveying heartache. He plays here with a quintet featuring Charles Neville. 8 p.m., Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th Street, Manhattan, www.concertstonight.com, (212) 307-7171; $39.50 to $49.50. (Sinagra)

BONNIE RAITT, MARC BROUSSARD (Wednesday and Thursday) Since her days following in the footsteps of blues performers like Sippie Wallace and Son House, Ms. Raitt has been comfortable playing with both rolling funk blues and blues-pop that relies on her clear, wearily emotive voice. Her latest work features stripped down songs about loss and resilience. The rootsy singer Marc Broussard opens. 8 p.m., Beacon Theater, 2124 Broadway, at 74th Street, (212) 496-7070; $40 to $75. (Sinagra)

PATTI SMITH (Wednesday and Thursday) As resolutely pretentious as ever, the punk-poet rocker Patti Smith still has the sinewy swagger to trump young imitators. In celebration of the 30th anniversary of her classic album "Horses," Ms. Smith and her band - the guitarist Lenny Kaye, the drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, the bassist Tony Shanahan and the guitarist Tom Verlaine, with a special guest, the bassist Flea - will perform the album in its entirety. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to hurricane-relief organizations. 7:30 p.m., Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Avenue, at Ashland Place, Fort Greene, (718) 636-4100; $20 to $45. (Sinagra)

WADADA LEO SMITH AND ALAN KUSHAN (Thursday) The trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith and the santur player and composer Alan Kushan integrate American improvisational music, Persian classical music and Sufi devotional practice in a performance featuring Mr. Smith's Golden Quartet and Mr. Kushan's group, Rumi's Disciple. 8 p.m., Merkin Concert Hall, 129 West 67th Street, Manhattan, (212) 362-8060; $10. (Sinagra)

LADY SOVEREIGN (Wednesday) Few M.C.'s ride the jerky rhythms of grime, a British mix of hip-hop and techno, quite like this adorably brash 17-year-old. Her appearance on this year's "Run the Road" compilation (Vice) was one of that excellent album's highlights. 9 p.m., Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006; $15. (Sinagra)

BILLY SQUIER (Wednesday) Who knew how important the singer-guitarist behind Zeppelin-lite 80's hits like "Everybody Wants You" and "My Kinda Lover" would be to hip-hop? B. B. King's Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144; $35. (Sinagra)

TOOTS & THE MAYTALS (Sunday) Toots Hibbert was the first Jamaican singer to put the term reggae in a song title; his "Do the Reggay" came out in 1968, when the rhythm was brand new. He is reggae's long-running soul man, applying the gruff, gospel exuberance of Otis Redding to tales of prison, love, dancing and redemption. 8 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800; $25 in advance, $30 at the door. (Pareles)

WE ARE WOLVES (Tomorrow) Among the current wave of Montreal bands, the trio We Are Wolves is less drama clubby than Arcade Fire, fitting more easily into the dance-punk category. 11 p.m., Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700; $8. (Sinagra)