ATLRetro

By Julia Carlson
Contributing Writer

Monday, May 27

Head to Piedmont Park for Atlanta Jazz Festival’s final day. Swing down to Café 290 for Bumpin The Mango at 8:30 p.m. Northside Tavern hosts its weekly Blues Jam featuring blues and southern soul singer Lola Gulley. Enjoy your BBQ with a side of Pead Boy & the Pork Bellies at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack.

Tuesday, May 28

Sonic Generator Presents: Metropolis! includes a free outdoor screening of the new restored, complete cut of Fritz Lang’s silent science fiction classic METROPOLIS (1927), with the premiers of an exciting new score at the Woodruff Arts Center. It’s also playing indoors at the Plaza all week. Hey, mon, hear some of great ska/reggae/roots when the Version City Tour, featuring King Django, Lloyd’s Rocksteady Revue and Hermits of Suburbia, arrives at the Masquerade‘s Purgatory. Musical May concludes at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern with a sing-a-long performance of the much-loved John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John movie GREASE (1978) as the retro cinema classic this week! Kool Kat Calu Cordeira mixes tiki libations during Mai Tai Tahitian Tuesday starting at 9 p.m. at the Dark Horse Tavern. Grab your horn and head over to Twain’s in Decatur for a Joe Gransden jazz jam session. Blues it down with Nathan Nelson & Entertainment Crackers at Northside Tavern. Head over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for some old school southern rock and blues with Crosstown Allstars. Tease up that big hair for a Heavy Metal Cover Band at 10 High. Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs hosts a weekly Bluegrass Jam. Learn to hula hoop from a master hooper and Kool Kat Rebecca Deshon at Studio Burlesque with a Beginners/All Levels class at 6:30 p.m, followed by Intermediate Hoop Dance. Also Ursula Undress teaches Beginner’s Burlesque at 8:30 p.m.

Wednesday, May 29

Brannen Burland and Schultz bring their creative combo of lap steel and theremin to The Star Bar with Eli Pop, the “white lightning country-blues and psychedelic-dosed rock n roll” of Hymn for Her and Zeppelin-King Crimson-influenced Verge of Bliss. Get schooled by two of Atlanta’s burlesque finest, Katherine Lashe or Kool Kat Talloolah Love in Beginning Burlesque classes at Studio Burlesque. Old enough to feel Retro? It’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd. Danny “Mudcat” Dudeck brings the Piedmont blues to Northside Tavern. Sing-a-long with  GREASE (1978) as the much-loved John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John movie plays a second night at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern this week!

Thursday, May 30

We can’t promise they’ll make your dreams come true but 70s/80s pretty-haired pop duo Hall & Oates do play Chastain Park Amphitheatre.  The Atlanta Food & Wine Festival offers tastings, classes and more through Sunday.  Relax with a cocktail while listening to the ska/reggae/groovy island sounds of Lloyd’s Rocksteady Revue at vintage tiki bar, Trader Vic’s. Go to Northside Tavern to hear the classic 50s Chicago-style blues of The Breeze Kings. Get on over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack to hear the honkytonkin’ blues of  Chickenshack. It’s 80s/90s Retro Video Night with free drinks ’til 10 at The Shelter.  Sweetwater Creek Bluegrass Band takes the stage at Red Light Cafe‘s weekly Bluegrass Thursday. If you didn’t get the chance to go to Studio Burlesque this week, you have another chance to try out Beginning Burlesque with Ursula Undressat 6:30 p.m., take a Basic Props Class with the Chameleon Queen, Meredith Greer, and enjoy live burlesquein the Performance Track Series at 9:30 p.m. Sing-a-long one more time with  GREASE (1978) when the much-loved John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John movie plays a final night at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern this week!

Friday, May 31

Legendary torch singer Tony Bennett and classical vocalist prodigy Jackie Evancho join the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre. John McCutcheon, Caroline Herring and Michelle Malone makes its a classic Atlanta roots/folk night at Red Clay Theatre in Duluth. Kingsized, featuring Kool Kat “Big Mike” Geier, make it a swing dance night at  Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX. Denim Arcade, featuring Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch, brings back the ’80s at Craze Tavern. Enjoy BBQ with a side while listening to SaNA Blues at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. And over at Northside Tavern Swami Gone Bananas brings “classic rock, jam band and psychedelic” this Friday night.

Saturday, June 1

This Blast-Off Burlesque Taboo-La-La brings possibly the most all-inclusive of  all taboos, John Waters‘ shocking cult classic PINK FLAMINGOS (1972) to The Plaza Theatre. Before the show, enjoy a live stage show guest-starring Baby-Doll and Poly Sorbate, featuring a Filthy Fashion & Sexy Doggie Doo Eating Contest! Win awesome Prizes and enjoy complimentary cocktails in the lobby starting at 9 p.m. Read our Retro Review here! Come on, dress fancy for The Artifice Club‘s The Dandies and Darlings Dance at Frill After Dark at The Marriott Courtyard-Decatur. Hosted by MCs H.M. and Renfield of steampunk favorites The Gin Rebellion, the posh night-out crosses multiple centuries with live music from ’80s tribute band Denim Arcade, featuring Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and her husband Wade Finch as Dandy Highwaymen Adam Ant alongside other retro rock and more, dance tunes from DJ Doctor Q sure to move your feet, and a Frill Fashion Show! The Star Bar and PBR present PBR’BQ! starting at 2 p.m. with psych pop band Abby Gogo and free burgers and dogs on the patio, followed by an evening of loud with Crawl, Sons of Tonituah, Degradations and Snake Oil from Florida. Smiths tribute band Smithsonian pitches in with The Goldest and Shook Foil to throw a benefit at the Earl to help with medical expenses for John Kelso, the manager of Bell Street Burritos at the Sweet Auburn Curb Market, critically acclaimed photographer, and  faithful supporter of the Atlanta Sacred Harp singing community. Zydefunk shakes up Northside Tavern.  Eric Roberson takes to Center Stage tonight. Come see Tony Bryant’s blues band at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. As usual, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, June 2

The 11th annual Rock and Roll Monster Bash kicks off at 10 a.m. at the Starlight Six Drive-In. Hosted by the Silver Scream Spookshow‘s Professor Morte, aka co-Kool Kat of the Week Shane Morton, this year’s event promises fiendish death grips with MONSTROSITY CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING starting at 1:30 p.m.; vicious vendors; hellish sounds kicking off at 2 p.m. from Alice Cooper tribute band Black Juju, Baby Baby, a reunion of The Butchers, Dracula (singing the hits as only he can!), Spooky Partridge and Metal Gaga (the lovechild of Lady Gaga and Iron Maiden!); plus two classic horror movies in 35 mm majesty at dark, THE DEVIL’S RAIN (1975), starring William Shatner, Ernest Borgnine and John Travolta, as well as Sam Raimi‘s EVIL DEAD 2 (1987), starring Bruce Campbell‘s chin and a chainsaw. Read our Retro Reviews for THE DEVIL’s RAIN here and EVIL DEAD 2 here. Advance tickets are available at https://www.ticketalternative.com. The Bonaventure  Quartet swings into The Earl to pay dunch. Watch for our Kool Kat interview with lead vocalist Amy Pike next week. Cineprov makes some good-spirited fun of Marlon Brando in classic Western ONE EYED JACKS (1961) at The Plaza Theater .The House Trio will jazz up The Family Dog from 7-10pm. Check out some classic bottleneck acoustic blues from Pead Boy and the Pork Bellys at Fatt Matt’s  Rib Shack. Get a Banjolicious brunch at Big Tex starting at noon.

Ongoing

Two black and white classics play this week (May 24-30) at The Plaza Theatre: the recently digitally restored and finally complete silent METROPOLIS (1927) and Martin Scorsese‘s brilliant boxing drama RAGING BULL (1980) starring Robert DeNiro. Watch for Retro Reviews later this week. Oh, and then there’s some comedy called PORKY’S (1982).

EXTREME MAMMALS from sabertooth tiger skulls and wooly mammoth fur to contemporary creatures such as the duck-billed platypus invade Fernbank Museum of Natural History through August 18.

Learn about  a different side to the third American president and Constitution author in the Really Retro special exhibition Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: How the Word is Passed Down at the Atlanta History Center through July 7.

Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night is Retro Cinema at Movie Tavern. Check out classic movies on the big screen weekly at 7:30 p.m.

Do you have or know of a Retro event we should include in This Week in Retro Atlanta? Be sure to email us at atlretro@gmail.com!