ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Contributing Writer

Retro Atlanta is the Kat’s meow this week! So, come on down and see what we’ve found for you! We’ve got all the honky-tonkin’, foot stompin’ ‘billy music you’re revved to see! We’ve got the blues, a little swing and a whole ‘lotta rock n roll!  Live la vida Retro and come on out and hang with the Kool Kats!

Monday, May 19

Yacht Rock Review delivers their finest tribute to ‘70s light rock at TheBuckhead Theatre tonight!  Or stomp on down to The Earl for a night with Quiet Life and Michael Nau (Cotton Jones)! Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 17-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month. Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! For a night of rockin’ blues, head on down to Blind Willie’s for Barrelhouse Bob Page! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a helping of Pork Bellys and some finger lickin’ BBQ!
 
Tuesday, May 20

Get down and dirty with a little southern gothic and roots revival with Little Hurricane and Lincoln Durham at The Earl! Rock on down to Hell at the Masquerade for the sinister Renaissance man dispensing macabre murderous tunes, backed by his skeletal orchestra, Voltaire with Ego Likeness! Stomp on down to Eddie’s Attic for Ben Trickey’s 7” release party with Kenny Howes! Get the blues at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint with the Bob Page Trio! Get a taste of some rhythm soul and rock n roll at Blind Willie’s with The Hollidays! 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 Tuesday! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm! 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! The Entertainment Crackers gets bluesy with their folksy Americana at the Northside Tavern.  And dance the night away with Gene Kelly at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern for their screening of Stanley Donen and Kelly’s classic musical, SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952) during their Musical May series at 7:30 pm!

Wednesday, May 21

Get funky at Smith’s Olde Bar with Voodoo Visionary, Yakapo and Tifford Sellers & the Wagon Burners! Swing on by the Elliott Street Pub for Jacob Deaton! Or rendezvous at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a night with Frankie’s Blues Mission! Kool Kat Scott Glazer’s Mojo Dojo rocks out with some blues, jazz and southern soul at Blind Willie’s!  Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! Lola delivers the blues at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint! It’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.  And ‘Make ‘Em Laugh’ at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern during their screening of Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly’s classic musical, SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952) during their Musical May series’ matinee screening at 11:30 am!

Thursday, May 22

For a little garage rock and dirty blues, make your way to The Star Bar to catch Kool Kat Rod Hamdallah’s EP Release Party with Black Linen, Jonah Swilley and more! It’s Bluegrass Thursday at the Red Light Café, so stomp on down for the High Strung String Band, Alex Commins, Todd Prusin and Alan Barrington! 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! Sweet Betty & the Shadows gets down and dirty blues-style at Blind Willie’s! Hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a couple Mai Tais and a rockin’ beach party thrown by Kool Kat Joshua Longino with Andrew & the Disapyramids! Get your boogie on at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village. And it’s your last chance to spend the evening with Gene Kelly at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern during their screening of Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly’s classic musical, SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952) during their Musical May series at 7:30 pm!

Friday, May 23

It’s a honky-tonk Kool Kat extravaganza tonight at The Star Bar! Stomp on down for night one of Bubbapalooza 2014 at 7 pm and get ‘yer hillbilly fix with Slim Chance & the Convicts, Chickens & Pigs, the Rollfast Ramblers, Kool Kat Julea Thomerson & Her Dear Johns, Kool Kat Spike Fullerton with the Ghost Riders Car Club and The Western Sizzlers! Check out ATLRetro’s article remembering Earl “Bubba” Maddox, former drummer for The Convicts, The Diggers and Gregory Dean & the Bubbamatics here and our article on Bubbapalooza’s 20th celebration here! Or come celebrate National Turtle Day with a night of art-rock and indie post punk at The Earl, along with screenings of GAMERA VS. GUIRON (1969) and THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (1990) throughout the night! Pillage & Plunder deliver their tunes reminiscent of ‘50s martini lounge, ‘70s psych-prog and ‘90s pop punk (Catch their Kool Kat interview soon!), along with Slowriter and Mice in Cars! And get your geek on and make your way to TimeGate 2014 being held at the Holiday Inn Select at Atlanta Perimeter/Dunwoody! TimeGate is a the three-day Sci-Fi and fantasy convention, covering sci-fi programs from Doctor Who to Stargate, with panels galore, cool guests and events of all kinds! Panels will discuss Doctor Who, StarGate, The Walking Dead, the history of sci-fi, Roddenberry and more! And you won’t want to miss their screening of STARGATE (1994)! If you love all things sci-fi, take a ride in your T.A.R.D.I.S. and time travel on over to Dunwoody to catch Paul McGillion of Stargate Atlantis, Terrance Dicks, the Doctor Who legend, Kevin R. Grazier, Science Advisor for several sci-fi shows, Robert Allsop, Doctor Who costume and prop designer and so much more! Tonight begins the three-day Atlanta Jazz Festival in Piedmont Park, featuring Italian jazz singer, the Roberta Gambarini Quartet and the Roy Hargrove Quintet!

It’s a night of fishy fear at The Strand Theater as they screen the classic ocean terror, JAWS (1975) at 8 pm, preceded by an organ pops pre-show at 7:30 pm! Or rev on down for a rockabilly throw down at the Diesel Filling Station for Kool Kat Rev. Andy’s Rockabilly Ruckus event, that’ll have you dancin’ the night away to tunes from Elvis to Brian Setzer to the Nekromantix! The Hollidays deliver a night of rockin’ soul at Hottie Hawgs BBQ! Smith’s Olde Bar delivers a night of country, soul and blues with Birds of Chicago! Stomp on down to Eddie’s Attic for a night with the Cumberland Collective! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! House Rocker Johnson & the Shadows get down and dirty at Blind Willie’s! Willy Jackson gets the blues at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! The Plaza Theater screens ROOM 237 (2012), Rodney Ascher’s documentary delving into the perceived meanings behind Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING (1980), running through May 29! Get your fill of your favorite MTV videos with Kool Kat VJ Anthony at his ICON 80s: Music Video Dance Night invading Famous Pub every Friday night at 10 pm! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues delivers a night of rockin’ British blues with Ian Siegal along with Little G Weevil!  Nineties alt rocker, Ben Folds (Ben Folds Five) joins the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at Atlanta Symphony Hall tonight! 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, May 24

The Star Bar is the Kat’s meow today because it’s day 2 of Bubbapalooza 2014, so get to honky-tonkin’ with The Oldfields, Truckstop Confidential, The Sideburners, The Mystery Men?, Kool Kat Cletis Reid & His City Cousins, The Downer Brothers, Kool Kat Caroline & the Ramblers, the Blacktop Rockets and The Legendary Shack Shakers! Special afternoon DJs will be rockin’ out in the Little Vinyl Lounge, including Kool Kat Rev.Andy, Greg Germoni, Kool Kat Julea Thomerson and Kool Kat Rod Hamdallah! Doors at 3 pm!

It’s day 2 of TimeGate 2014, so come on out for a day of panels, puppet shows, a little saucy cabaret, a masquerade and tunes by the Ken Spivey Band! It’s night 2 of the Atlanta Jazz Festival featuring Willie Ziavino & the C.O.T Band, Brian Hogan’s Quartet and so much more! Brad Birkedahl & the Burnin’ Love Band channels the spirit of Elvis at The Strand Theater, along with the tunes of Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins! Put on those dancin’ shoes and get ready for a night of retro rock, Motown, funk, Big Band and more at The Basement for Electric Western’s Keep on Movin’ Rock and Soul Dance Party! Kool Kat Amy Pike and the Bonaventure Quartet deliver a night of Parisian swing and gypsy jazz at The Family Dog! Get your ‘80s fix at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre with Styx, Foreigner and Don Felder! David T & Friends put on a musical variety show, featuring blues, funk and rock at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs, with special guest cellist, Nan Kemberling! Roxie Watson delivers a night of old-country, rockabilly, bluegrass and classic rock n roll at Eddie’s Attic! It’s a night of old-school blues at the Northside Tavern with the Sammy Blues Band! Francine Reed delivers a night of down home blues at Blind Willie’s! Blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a side of Dry White Toast with some finger lickin’ BBQ! Get morose at Famous Pub with Kool Kat VJ Anthony’s BLACK OUT event featuring dark ‘80s, Goth and industrial every fourth Saturday of the month! 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, May 25

Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs delivers their Gypsy Jazz Brunch offering up a plate of Hot Club jamming and Parisian Swing with Kool Kat Amy Pike and the Bonaventure Quartet from 12:30 to 3:30 pm every 2^nd & 4^th Sunday! Stomp on over to Big Tex for their Bluegrass Brunch with The CohenBrothers! Blues on down to Blind Willie’s for Tanglewood Tonic! Vito Romeo delivers a rockin’ ‘Dunch’ at The Earl! It’s a blues jam at the Crimson Moon Café, featuring Randall Bramblett and Geoff Achison (The Souldiggers)! Francine Reed and the Jez Graham Trio get bluesy at The Family Dog!  Blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for Tony Bryant! And it’s your last chance to get your Doctor Who and Stargate fix at TimeGate 2014! It’s day 3 and your last chance to catch the Atlanta Jazz Festival in Piedmont Park, featuring the Freddy Cole Quartet, Bill Frisell, the Airmen of Note and so much more!

Ongoing

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

Get medieval and really retro this spring in Lilburn at the 29^th Annual Georgia Renaissance Festival running through June 8^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 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.