Evan Dando, with Milo Jones, Headlights. Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave. N.W., 789-3599. 8 p.m. $15. Being Evan Dando must be a little rough. As the affable frontman of the Lemonheads, he made some fantastic records in the 90’s but never quite became the institution that he was capable of being. A combination of cuddly and scruffy, Dando was a little too pin-up material (was there a single issue of Sassy without a mention of Dando?) and pop-minded for the grunge-centric 90’s. Since then, he’s broken up and reformed the Lemonheads numerous times, battled with drug addiction, married a model, released a covers record (Varshons) and put on notoriously inconsistent live shows; basically, he’s jumped through almost every rock cliche in the book. Still, it’s nearly impossible to hate the guy; any listens to the Lemonheads records reveal the shy, quiet charmer that, all drama aside, is the core of a great, quirky songwriter. GREGORY FRANKLINBottoms Up Blues Gang, with The Sam Marshall Trio. Highway 99 Blues Club, 1414 Alaskan Way, 382-2171. 9 p.m. $8. The through-line from W.C. Handy’s groundbreaking, genre-establishing “St. Louis Blues” to St. Louis’ Bottoms Up Blues Gang (currently the Gateway City’s reigning blues duo) can appear fuzzy at times. Whereas Handy and company (Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, et al) fused brass-laden, twelve-bar melodies with elements of pop, jazz and ragtime, Bottoms Up guitarist Jeremy Segel-Moss and vocalist Kari Liston stick to a twangy, backwoods acoustic vibe. What past and present share is a wry delivery of arch, shoulda-known-better lyrics and a deliberately rough-edged stage presence that invites everybody to come a little closer. With a repertoire carefully crafted from equal parts originals and covers, Bottoms Up also knows how to pay reverent tribute; the duo cleverly re-imagines Louis Jordan’s “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby” as part boozy nightclub torch song, part groovy jam-band ditty. And like all great blues bands, no matter what the decade, they succeed wildly in making you feel anything but blue. ROSE MARTELLI