ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor/Contributing Writer

Come on down and see what swell shenanigans we’ve dug up for you in Retro Atlanta this week!  This week is the Kat’s meow with all the revved up honky-tonkin’ ‘billy and surf rock you could ever want! And you won’t want to miss all the ragtime, Dixieland Prohibition-era pandemonium! Get a bloody taste of some hellish classic horror! Get your fill of vintage films and boogie on down to the best funk and blues in town! And sell your soul for a little sassy burly-Q! So get hep to the jive and rock out in Retro Atlanta this week!

Monday, July 28

Honky-tonk on down to Kavarna for a stompin’ good time with The Blue-Eyed Bettys! Get retro, kiddie-style at Pallookaville’s vintage cinema extravaganza with The Polka Dotted Elephant Summer Cinema Club at 10 am, with their screenings of a DOGVILLE SHORT episode (1930), LANCELOT LINK episode (1970) and featuring a trip down the yellow brick road with their screening of the classic, THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)! Blind Willie’s delivers a night of rockin’ blues with Barrel House Bob Page! 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!  Blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a bluesy helping of The Pork Bellies and some finger lickin’ BBQ!
 
Tuesday, July 29

Stomp on down to The Earl for a night of old-time Americana and garage country with The Villain Family, The Vivants and Book of Colors! Spend the night with Leslie Nielsen at Diesel Fueling Station as Nerd Film Mafia screens Jim Abrams, Jerry Zucker and David Zucker’s classic comedy, AIRPLANE! (1980) at 10 pm following NerdCore Trivia every last Tuesday of the month! Get R&B soaked and retro rocked at Eddie’s Attic with TheShadowboxers! Get psychedelic and southern-fried roots-style at the Masquerade with Cope, the Donna Hopkins Band and The Hurley Show (Freddys Finest)! The Goldmine Pickers deliver a night of hot-pickin’ bluegrass and old-time Americana at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Head on down to the Midtown Art Cinema for a night with William Holden as they screen Sam Peckinpah’s classic, THE WILD BUNCH (1969)! The Hollidays deliver a night of soul and rock and roll at Blind Willie’s! Get the rockin’ blues with the Bob Page Trio at Sweet Georgia’ Juke Joint! Make your way to Big Tex for a night with Moira Nelligan & The Dixie Jigs and their old-fashioned Americana! 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! 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 get bluesy with their folksy Americana at the Northside Tavern. Rock on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a night with JT Speed! And if you feel the need for speed, fly on over to the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern as they screen Tony Scott’s, TOP GUN (1986) during their Summer of Adventure series at 7:30 pm!

Wednesday, July 30

Stomp on down for a hootenanny and a half tonight at The Star Bar as they get smokin’ during their Slim Chicken Honky-tonk Extravaganza, featuring live-band old-time country and western tunes!  Debauche delivers a night of Russian gypsy music at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Rock out old-school with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as they present Yes, performing two of their classic albums, “Fragile,” and “Close to the Edge”! Get down and dirty with some psyche-delta blues at The Drunken Unicorn with All Them Witches and Bad Friend! Rock out with the ‘blues woman power’ of Beverly ‘Guitar’ Watkins at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint! Blind Willie’s rocks out with the Electromatics! Get your ‘90s pop fix at Chastain Park Amphitheatre with Sarah McLachlan! For some old-time raunchy rock n roll, head on over to the Clermont Lounge for JB Walker & the Cheap Whiskey Band! Or get sleazy and blues-tinged at The Earl with Gunpowder Gray and Scarlett! Get a second helping of TheShadowboxers at Eddie’s Attic!  The Hollidays deliver a night of soul and rock and roll at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! 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.  Live long and prosper as the Highland Inn & Ballroom becomes the Final Frontier as SCENE MISSING Magazine presents their writing and comedy show based on Star Trek films, with costume contests and more during The Wrathlanta of Khan event at 9 pm! Or spend one hot summer day with Tom Cruise at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern during their matinee screening of Tony Scott’s, TOP GUN (1986) during their Summer of Adventure series at 11:30 am!

Thursday, July 31

Rock on down to The Drunken Unicorn for a night of horror punk mischief and catch The Luchagors (last show!), Brawful and our own Kool Kats, TheCasket Creatures! Get filled with a little jangle pop and new-wave folk at The Earl with The Rosebuds and The Meeks Family! Make your way to the Fox Theater as the Coca Cola Summer Film Festival presents George Cukor’s vintage rom-com, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940) starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart! Get swanky at Trader Vic’s with Bogey & the Viceroy Quartet while sippin’ on a couple Mai Tais! It’s Bluegrass Thursday at the Red Light Café, so stomp on down for a night with Alex (Commins) & Todd (Prusin)! Get a taste of some New Orleans’ funk and R&B at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint with The Mar-Tans! The Shadows get down and dirty at Blind Willie’s! Get bluesy and enjoy an acoustic lunch hour at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs with AndrewBlack! Come on down and catch a little funk with Mingo Fishtrap in the Music Room at Smith’s Olde Bar, or head to the Atlanta Room for a night rockin’ psychedelia with The Freshtones, The Orange Constant and JohnnyAwesome! 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! 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 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 catch Tony Scott’s tale of adventure, TOP GUN (1986) at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern during their Summer of Adventure series at 7:30 pm!

Friday, August 1

Kick off the weekend with a whole lotta horror classics by spookin’ on down to the first annual Monsterama Convention invading the Holiday Inn Perimeter and haunting all your senses through August 3! Experience three horrorific tracks (Main, Literary and Maker) while perusing the monsterific vender tables.  Catch a haunting glimpse of horror experts including film director, Jeff Burr, ATLRetro’s very own Kool Kitten and horror writer, Anya Martin, horror history expert and documentarian, Daniel Griffith of Ballyhoo Motion Pictures (Keep your eyes peeled for his Kool Kat interview this week!), Kool Kat Shane Morton, ghost host with the most, a.k.a. Professor Morte, Victoria Price (daughter of the legendary Vincent Price), legendary Hammer scream queen, VeronicaCarlson, glamour ghoul Kool Kat Madeline Brumby and so many more! Rock out to some Victorian chamber metal with Valentine Wolfe! And don’t forget to catch a helluva lot of screenings including an episode of The OuterLimits, Kool Kat Shane Morton’s award-winning, ATLANTA ZOMBIEAPOCALYPSE MOVIE (2014), Roddenberry’s made-for-TV movie, SPECTRE (1977) and the riffing skills of Cineprov during the screening of Dennis Muren and Jack Woods’ horror film, EQUINOX (1970)! So, come on down for the horror that is the Monsterama Convention and get your vintage horror fix!

Or hula on over to the B3 Bar & Grill in Austell for the 4th Annual Rockabilly Luau, promising a weekend full of island shenanigans, rockin’ live music, tiki libations, Hawaiian dancers, fire performances, car and bike shows, pin-up contests hosted by the Bombshell Bettie’z and so much more, revvin’ through August 2!  Get yer ‘billy fix with their rockin’ musical lineup including Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho-DeVilles, Kool Kat Phil Stair with Grim Rooster, Atomic Boogie, The SideBurners, Cadillac Junkies, Brad Latham as Elvis, circus side-show shenanigans by Captain & Maybelle and so much more! And don’t forget to peruse the rockin’ vintage vender tables including Jezebel Blue, 2the9s Retro and so much more! So, rev on down to the B3 Bar & Grill and party island-style like it’s the 1960s!

The Plaza Theater delivers a night of retro screenings with Sydney Pollack’s THE WAY WE WERE (1973), running through August 2 and Robert Benton’s classic court drama, KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979), also screening on August 3!  For a night of ‘20s ragtime and Dixieland jazz, head on over to The Earl for a two-night stand with Kool Kat Blair Crimmins & the Hookers and Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands! Strung Like A Horse delivers their gritty garage punk grass at The Star Bar! Get funky and blues on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with the AJ Ghent Band and The First Stone, followed by a little roots rock with Cody Marlowe & the Dead Flowers in the Music Room, or make your way to the Atlanta Room for a little honky-tonk Americana with Jesse & the Great Perhaps, Cortez Garza and CandasseRandall! It’s a night of old-time vintage shenanigans with The Whiskey Jackets and burlesque by Sadie Hawkins at the Red Light Café! Get your old-school rock n roll pop fix at The Variety Playhouse with Judy Collins and Rachael Sage! Get the blues with House Rocker Johnson & the Shadows at Blind Willie’s! “Blues Diva” Diedra & the Ruff Band get bluesy at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Kool Kat Scott Glazer’s Mojo Dojo rocks out with some blues, jazz and southern soul at Northside Tavern! Atlanta’s ‘rockin’ and stompin’ blues band’, Chicken and Pigs get down at Big Tex! Get folksy at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX event and do a little boogyin’ under the dinosaurs with Cicada Rhythm! Party like it’s 1999 with Kool Kat VJ Anthony at his ICONTROVERSY 80s: PRINCE Music Video Dance Party invading Famous Pub at 10 pm! 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, August 2

Rockin’ Retro Atlanta is the Kat’s Meow with local musicians pulling together to help one of their own, Greg Germani at The Star Bar, with a benefit concert, promising a night of swingin’ shenanigans in the name of their brother with music and must-have raffle items! So, rock out for a great cause and catch a revved up musical lineup of Kool Kats galore, featuring, Ghost Riders Car Club with Kool Kat Spike Fullerton on guitar, The Blacktop Rockets, Kool Kat Caroline & the Ramblers, The Mystery Men?, Kool Kat Julea Thomerson, AMGold, Slim Chance & the Convicts and Grinder Nova! It’s Shakespeare in love (or maybe lust!) tonight at the Shakespeare Tavern with Kool Kats Talloolah Love and Persephone Phoenix’ inaugural spectacular, Passions: A Burlesque Devotional! So get sultry and shimmy on down to catch a whole lotta seduction with additional performances by Kool Kat Lola LeSoleil, Kool Kat Ursula Undress, Roula Roulette, NinaCharrise, Desta del Carmen, Harleen Cassidy, Robert Thomas Dant, Tippy Tapage, Tora Torrid, Candi Le Coeur and more!  It’s day 2 of the Monsterama Convention, featuring Kool Kat Shane Morton, a.k.a. Professor Morte’s Silver Scream Spook Show preceding a screening of Jim O’Connolly’s THE VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969) paying tribute to the godfather of special effects, Ray Harryhausen in addition to delivering a horrific journey into spook show history! Take a peek at guest Larry Blamire’s THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA (2002)! And you won’t want to miss the Monster Prom, with DJ Dusty Booze spinning the grooviest garage rock vinyl and manic masquerade shenanigans by Prof. Morte! And stick around for a whole lotta horrorific classics; James Whale’s BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935), Freddie Francis’ SON OF DRACULA (1974) and Daniel Griffith of Ballyhoo Motion Pictures’s documentary, THEBLOODIEST SHOW ON EARTH: MAKING VAMPIRE CIRCUS (2010), followed by Hammer Productions’, VAMPIRE CIRCUS (1972) and so much more! So come on out and get your classic horror fix at Monsterama! And it’s day 2 and your last chance to get revved up and rockin’ hula-style at B3 Bar & Grill in Austell for the 4th Annual Rockabilly Luau!

Get your second helping of a little prohibition-era pandemonium at The Earl with Kool Kat Blair Crimmins & the Hookers and The Royal Tinfoil! Swing on down to the Druid Hills Dance Center for the Hepcat’s Hop and boogie with the best of ‘em! Rock out with Wussy as they deliver a night of rockin’ 60’s pop and 70’s psychedelia at the Red Light Café! The Stoneberrys deliver a night of Rolling Stone tunes at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Get some soul at Kavarna with Joy Ike! For a night of ‘70s power pop, rock on down to Smith’s Olde Bar and catch The Head, David Cone and StartingFires! Find your roots at the Buckhead Theatre with Passenger! The horror punkers and Kool Kats, TheCasket Creatures rock out at the Masquerade! Stomp on down to the Crimson Moon Café for a night with The DrewGibson Trio! Get funky at Terminal West with the Funky Meters! Punk on down to 529 for a rockin’ night with The House Harkonnen, The Vaginas, Mothership and Gunpowder Gray! For the kid in all of you, make your way to the Fox Theater for the Coca Cola Summer Film Festival’s presentation of Saturday morning cartoons at 10 am!  The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Sandra Hall & the Shadows get the blues at Blind Willie’s! Blues on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues for a night with JP Soars! Get cinema retro at The Plaza Theater as they screen Joseph Pevney’s TAMMY AND THE BACHELOR (1957), screening through August 3! 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, August 3

Shimmy and shake on down to 7 Stages and get mischievous with Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and her saucy Syrens of the South during their 7^thAnniversary Show, featuring performances by Flame Cynders, Kool KatLola LeSoleil, Siren Santina, Claire Voltaire and so much more! It’s day 3 and your last chance to get your classic horror fix at the Monsterama Convention, featuring a history of Monsterverse Comics, a screening of Daniel Griffith’s THIS ISLAND EARTH: 2 ½ YEARS IN THE MAKING (2013), a look at horror writing legends, H.P. Lovecraft to Stephen King with Anya Martin and more, a peek into Frankenstein and a showdown between Cthulu and Godzilla! It’ll be a day you won’t want to miss, so haunt on down to the Monsterama Convention! Get your Mel Brooks fix at the Fox Theater during the Coca Cola Summer Film Festival’s double feature, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) and BLAZING SADDLES (1974) at 2 pm! Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs gets jazzy with their Deb Bowman Jazz Brunch! Get the hill country blues at Smith’s Olde Bar with Carlos Elliot Jr! It’s a day of Shirley MacLain at The Plaza Theater as they screen Herbert Ross’ STEEL MAGNOLIAS (1989) and James L. Brooks’ TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (1983)! Stomp on down to Pallookaville for their free Sunday Night Summer Concert Series featuring the Deja Blue GrassBand! Big Tex has their Bluegrass Brunch with City Hotel and PavingGravy! Fat Back Deluxe gets the blues at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Rock on down to the Crimson Moon Café for their Boomers Gone Wild event, delivering a night of ‘60s and ‘70s covers! Get the Americana blues with Katharine Cole at Kavarna! And get your Django-gypsy jazz fix at the Red Light Café with The Micah Cadwell Quartet and The Cook Trio!

Ongoing

Pallookaville delivers old-school vintage tunes during their free Sunday Night Summer Concert Series running through August 24 from 7-10pm!

The High Museum gets revved during their ‘Dream Cars; Innovative Design, Visionary Dreams’ exhibit, featuring forward-thinking auto designs from 1932 to the present, running through September 7!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Fueling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the month!

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.