ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Contributing Writer

As the temperatures rise, so do the number of rockin’ events in Retro Atlanta! Come on out and see what we have for you ‘This Week’!  From vintage cinema galore to 70’s psychedelia and funk to all the old-fashioned blues and rock your little Retro hearts desire! Don’t be square! Come on out and play Retro-style ’cause the Kool Kats are on the prowl and are ready to roar!

Monday, April 14

Get your fill of 70s sci-fi and Japanese animation at Cinefest as they screen Rene Laloux’ stop-motion animated picture, FANTASTIC PLANET (1973) and Eiichi Yamamoto’s BELLADONNA OF SADNESS (1973) screening through April 20! Get funky and groove on down to Café 290 every second and fourth Monday of the month for a taste of Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’ Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! Get soulful and rootsy at Blind Willie’s with Brandon Reeves! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a side of Dry White Toast with some finger lickin’ BBQ!
 
Tuesday, April 15

Midtown Art Cinema gets dramatic with John Cassavete’s critically-acclaimed film, A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE (1974) in 35 mm! Boogie on down to The Star Bar and get groovy at The Funk Godfather, DJ Romeo Cologne’s Funk Royale featuring DJ Quasi Mandisco every other Tuesday! Bobby Bare, Jr. rocks out Americana and roots rock-style at The Earl! Head on over to Blind Willie’s for that deep blues sound of the Little G Trio with Little G. Weevil! Stomp on down to Big Tex for a night with Moira Nelligan & The Dixie Jigs and their old-fashioned Americana! Or boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta for a taste of Bill Sheffield’s acoustic roots and blues! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm. The Entertainment Crackers gets bluesy with their folksy Americana sounds at the Northside Tavern.  Get the blues at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack with the J.T. Speed Band! And tag along with Vincent Vega and Jules as they take you on a bloody ride during their shooting rampage in Quentin Tarantino’s cult neo-noir classic, PULP FICTION (1994) at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern during their L.A. After Dark series’ screening at 7:30 pm!

Wednesday, April 16

Eddie’s Attic gets some delta ‘billy jug band soul as they host the The Ben Miller Band with special guest Sarah Michaud! Get funky at Smith’s Olde Bar with The Main Squeeze, the Clibber Jones Ensemble and Comrade Blue! The Breeze Kings deliver their Chicago and Delta blues at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint! You won’t want to miss the blues-stylings of The Cazanovas at Blind Willie’s! Get some soul at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack with The Hollidays! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! It’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.  And ditch school for a life of crime as the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern screens Quentin Tarantino’s cult neo-noir classic, PULP FICTION (1994) at during their L.A. After Dark series’ matinee screening at 11:30 am!

Thursday, April 17

Get geeky and ‘Greek’y old-school style and join the misfits and sociopaths that are, The Deltas, at The Plaza Theater as they throw the biggest toga party in town with their screening of NATIONAL  LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE (1978), directed by John Landis, at 7:30 and 9:45 pm!  Vinyl delivers a night of outlaw folk and Americana with Wild Child, Them Wagoneers and The Good Graces! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! Make your way to the Crimson Moon Café for The Tom & Julie Show featuring tributes to tunes from the 60s to the 90s every Thursday! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! Get sugary sweet and low down at Blind Willie’s with Sweet Betty & the Shadows! Spend an evening with Bogey & The Viceroy Quartet as they deliver a little swanky soul and rock ‘n roll at Trader Vic’s and enjoy a cocktail or two! Rock out roots-style at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs with Donna Hopkins! And it’s your last chance to catch Quentin Tarantino’s cult neo-noir classic, PULP FICTION (1994) at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern during their L.A. After Dark series’ screening at 7:30 pm!

Friday, April 18

Rock on down to Centennial Olympic Park for the Tenth Annual Sweetwater 420 Fest, a three-day event delivering a musical line-up chock full of retro-inspired awesomeness!  Tonight, catch the Cajun, New Orleans funk of Galactic; a little reggae roots with Steel Pulse and some bayou Americana and roots rock with the Honey Island Swamp Band, while enjoying tasty food and beverages!

Get really retro with Cecil B. Demille at The Strand Theater as they screen his epic picture, KING OF KINGS (1927) accompanied by the live original musical score by legendary Hollywood composer, Hugo Riesenfeld! Hey all you miscreants and misfits! Rock on down to The Star Bar for The Evils, The El Caminos and Maiden Atlanta! Abbey Road LIVE! invades the Variety Playhouse with their Beatlemania Anniversary Show performing ‘The Red Album’ (1962-1966) at 8 pm! Or get your Beatle’s fix at Smith’s Olde Bar for the Yacht Rock Review’s Beatle tribute band, Please Please Rock Me in the Music Room! Or get in the ‘round with Donna Hopkins, Carly Gibson, Hannah Zale (Boomfox) and Julie Holmes at the Red Light Café! Hey Daddy-O! Rev on down to Motorheads in McDonough for a rockin’ night with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho-DeVilles! The Milk Carton Kids deliver a night of their Simon & Garfunkel/Everly Brother’s-infused folk rock at the Buckhead Theatre! The Breeze Kings dish out their Chicago/Delta blues at Hottie Hawgs BBQ! It’s an ‘ICONtroversy’ with Kool Kat VJ Anthony at the Famous Pub with his ICON 80s: Music Video Dance Night at 10 pm! For a little Americana, rockabilly and bluegrass, stomp on down to the Crimson Moon Café for Destitute Way and Battlefield Collective! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets bluesy with JP Blues! Get funky with Rough Draft at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Houserocker Johnson & The Shadows deliver a night of down and dirty blues at Blind Willie’s! Get jazzy with Joe Gransden at the High Museum for their Jazz Fridays event!  Stomp on down to Big Tex for a night with Georgia Railroad and their twangy bluegrass! The Northside Tavern gets bluesy with Stoney Brooks while Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs dishes out some 1940’s cabaret blended big band jazz and vintage roots with Melon & the Mayhem!  It’s Salsa Dance Night at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX event, so come on out and cha-cha under the dinosaurs while enjoying a few cocktails with the Salsambo Dance Studio! Emory Cinematheque screens Frank Perry and Sydney Pollack’s surrealist drama, THE SWIMMER (1968) during their Burt Lancaster: Centennial Film Fest series! And as always, Time-Warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens at The Plaza Theater as they continue their tradition of screening THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Saturday, April 19

Blues on down to the Northside Tavern for their Sixth Annual Tribute to Sean Costello from 7pm to 2am featuring a musical lineup of rockin’ blues with  The Cazanovas, Bill Sheffield & Jon Liebman, Kool Kat Rod Hamdallah, the Georgia Flood, the Larry Griffith Band, Abe Lincoln & the Log Lawyers and Frets on Fire! And it’s day two of the Tenth Annual Sweetwater 420 Fest, dishing out retro tunes by Wesley Cook, Sublime with Rome, Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers and Anders Osborne!

It’s Saturday movie madness! Creep on down to Eyedrum as Kyle Eyre Clyd performs a little voodoo with his interpretation and live soundtrack performance accompanying F.W. Mernau’s classic horror picture, NOSFERATU (1922)! Or head on over to Emory Cinematheque for their screening of Alexander Mackendrick’s SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957) during their Burt Lancaster: Centennial Film Fest series! And The Plaza Theater is screening Peter Jackson’s cinematic adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic adventures, LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY – DIRECTOR’S CUT at 1 pm!

For a little taste of Dick Dale-inspired surf rock, catch a wave to the Elliott Street Pub for Grinder Nova! It’s a retro rock revival at 529 with The Love Language, Antique Firearms and Casper & The Cookies! Wishbone Ash dishes out four decades of British rock at the Variety Playhouse! Don’t stop believin’ at The Strand Theater as Departure pays tribute to Journey! Blues on down to the Red Clay Theater for Francine Reed & Friends or rock out blues-style at The Family Dog with Frankie’s Blues Mission! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack rocks out with the Wild Oats while Blind Willie’s delivers a bluesy night with Big Bill Morganfield! Swing on by Darwin’s Burgers & Blues  for a night with Dennis Gruenling & Doug Deming! Stomp on down to the Crimson Moon Café for a night with EG Kight and her Americana and blues! It’s Record Store Day, so rock on down to Wax’n’Facts to catch Kool Kat Julea Thomerson & her Dear Johns rockin’ out with their vintage boot stompin’ sounds! Or stomp on down to Mojo Vinyl in Roswell and catch the foot stompin’ bluegrass of Lauren St. Jane & the Dead Westerns and Rye! And as always, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, April 20

Groove on down to Candler Park for the 25^th Annual Great Atlanta Pot Fest featuring roots reggae,  70s psychedelia and a whole lot of rock ‘n roll with a musical lineup of Culture, Tribute [Allman Brothers Tribute Band], Kool Kat Spike Fullerton and the Ghost Riders Car Club, Swami Gone Bananas and Naked Truth! It’s day three and your last chance to catch some rockin’ retro tunes at the Tenth Annual Sweetwater 420 Fest, with the DirtyDozen Brass Band, G. Love & Special Sauce, the Chris Robinson Brotherhood and Kung Fu!

Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs delivers their Big Band Atlanta Jazz Brunch! Blues on down to The Earl for ‘Dunch’ with Os Ossos! Or stomp on down to Big Tex for their Bluegrass Brunch with the Decatur Bluegrass Association (D.B.A)! Rock on down to the Red Light Café for an evening of Americana and jazzy folk with Cicada Rhythm, Ruby the RabbitFoot and Christian Lee Hutson! Make your way to Emory Cinematheque for their screening of Jules Dassin’s film noir prison drama, BRUTE FORCE (1947) during their Burt Lancaster: Centennial Film Fest series at 7:30 pm! The Plaza Theater is offering an encore screening of Peter Jackson’s cinematic adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic adventures, LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY – DIRECTOR’S CUT! And make your way to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack and get rockin’ with Fatback Deluxe!

Ongoing

It’s a hard knock life at the Atlanta Lyric Theater as they present ‘Annie’ through April 20^th! (LAST CHANCE!)

Georgia Ensemble Theatre gets really retro with ‘Camelot’ Broadway-style through April 27^th!

Out of Box Theatre presents ‘Always…Patsy Cline,’ running through April 27^th!

Take a magic carpet ride through the historic Arabian-themed Fox Theater as they kick off their ‘Spring Fling withWild Things’ tours running through May 17^th!

Center for Puppetry Arts spins ‘Charlotte’s Web’ through May 25^th!

ICON 80s: Music Video Dance Night rocks out at the Famous Pub every Friday night with a different 80’s theme!

The Star Bar gets groovy with The Funk Godfather, DJ Romeo Cologne and DJ QuasiMandisco every other Tuesday!

Steve’s Live Music’s Gypsy Jazz Brunch offers up a plate of Hot Club jamming and Parisian Swing with Kool Kool Kat Amy Pike and the Bonaventure Quartet from 12:30 to 3:30 pm every 2^nd & 4^th Sunday!

Boogie on down into Disco Hell at The Family Dog as DJ Quasi Mandisco delivers a night of classic funk, soul and disco the last Friday of every month

The Plaza Theater Time-Warps it up as they screen, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Every first and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Café 290, featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra playing jazz and swing standards in the tradition of The Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups.  Second and fourth Mondays are Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’

Every first Wednesday is the Graveyard Tavern’s Graveyard Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings!

If you have a suggestion for a future event that should be included in This Week in Retro Atlanta or see something we missed, please email us at atlretro@gmail.com.