ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Contributing Writer

‘This Week’ in Retro Atlanta is chock full of bumpin’ and rockin’ events and is just the tip of the iceberg in this wonderfully wicked season of ghosts and goblins, spooks and the spook-tacular!! Come one, come all! Get out there and enjoy all that Atlanta has to offer from the rockin’est tunes to the nostalgic films of yesteryear.  You won’t be disappointed! There’s something for everyone, so get off the couch, turn off the television and join us in Retro Atlanta!

Monday, September 23

Don’t let the Monday blues get you down! 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!’ or release it all with Midnight Revival at Blind Willie’s. Get that new-wave vibe with Rush Midnight at Smith’s Olde Bar. Pork it up with Pead Boy & The Pork Bellies at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. For a little history, head on over to The Plaza Theater’s premiere screening of  LETTERS TO JACKIE: REMEMBERING PRESIDENT KENNEDY (2013), a  documentary film that reveals the moving and powerful letters received by Jackie Kennedy in the months following the assassination of the President.

Tuesday, September 24

Let John Hughes drag you back to the good ol’ high school days in the 80-iest of 80s teen flick THE BREAKFAST CLUB (1985) at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s retro cinema series this week!  If you’re looking for a new-wave revolution, check out Sonen at 529 and get that Joy Division-esque thrill you’ve been craving! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm. If you’re hankering for some bluegrass, head on over to Eddie’s Attic for the bluegrass and soul sounds of the Tumbleweed Wanderers or make a trip to Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs for their weekly Bluegrass & Hootenanny Jam featuring The Night Travelers with special guest Curtis Jones.  Maybe you need something a little bit faster, a little bit more upbeat. Smith’s Olde Bar promises you just that with that cool rockabilly sound of Kool Kat Phil Stair, lead vocalist of Grim Rooster, starting at 8 pm.  Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires up the blues at Blind Willie’s. And if you still haven’t found what you’re looking for, delve a little bit darker withe the Old School 90s Rave Trax, beatin’ it down at The Shelter.

Wednesday, September 25

529 offers some great tribute bands with Nameless Nameless grinding out the sounds of Nirvana, The Deluxe Interiors punkin’ it up like The Cramps and Tracer Metula bringing the 90s surf-pop sounds of Weezer to the stage.  The Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center promises a night of retro fun with the nine-time-Grammy-winning solo artist and original founder of the Manhattan Transfer, Janis Siegel, along with Kevin Mahogany and the multi-Grammy winning act, The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra. Blind Willie’s charges up the red-hot blues sounds of the Electromatics. Noel Stephen & the Darlings brings it at The Earl, playing music “your grandparents used to love”! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack serves up the vintage blues stylings of The Georgia Flood, while Steve’s Live Music hosts the well-known Little G. Weevil and Billy Gibson. For a taste of that Ramones-esque bubblegum pop/punk you’ve been missing, check out Twin Peaks at the Masquerade. Head on down to the Variety Playhouse to listen to the 90s jazzy, bluesy tunes of Ani Difranco. It’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd. Skip school and meet the brain, the beauty, the jock, the rebel and the recluse in an 11:30 am morning matinee of John Hughes’ 80s classic teen flick THE BREAKFAST CLUB (1985) at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s retro cinema series this week!

Thursday, September 26

It’s your chance to FINALLY catch Steven Spielberg’s critically-acclaimed film about the loveable alien, ET (1982), on the big screen at 9:30 pm at The Plaza Theater during their Fall Focus on Directors series.  Rock on over to The Earl to catch three decades worth of punk rock with the Cosmic Psychos, formed in 1982 and formerly known as Spring Plain. Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack delivers some honky-tonk blues and head on over to Steve’s Live Music for the bluesy funk sounds of George Price while Blind Willie’s promises a jamming good time with the sounds and ‘blues woman power’ of Beverly ‘Guitar’ Watkins.  Northside Tavern presents the classic 50s Chicago-style blues of The Breeze Kings. For a pickin’ good time, head on over to the Red Light Café as they offer up the sounds of Apostles of Bluegrass and Battlefield Collective as part of their Thursday Bluegrass Jam. The Wood Brothers’ blues/funk/folk revival sounds can be heard at the Variety Playhouse. Get your boogie on at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village. Relax with a cocktail while listening to the groovy sounds of Kool Kat Big Mike and Tongo Hiti at vintage tiki bar, Trader Vic’s.  It’s 80s/90s Retro Video Night with free drinks ’til 10 at The Shelter. If you prefer a grungier surf sound, head on over to 529 to take in the Mood Rings.  And it’s your last chance to intermingle with the Brat Pack in John Hughes’ 80s classic teen flick THE BREAKFAST CLUB (1985) at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s retro cinema series this week!

Friday, September 27

Today begins the spook-tacular, dark and Twisted Fears Horror Weekend at the Atlanta Marriott Perimeter Center! Experience the horrific and gory Italian Invasion while perusing the vender room, witnessing the Walk of the Dead and participating in the Day of the Woman Pageant! Watch for our Kool Kat of the Week interview with con organizer Jeremy Morris soon, but the line-up includes an extravaganza of retro guests (many of whom have never creeped into our neck of the woods before) including Barbara Steele, Queen of Horror and the ever beautiful star of BLACK SUNDAY (1960), the Italian gothic horror film directed by Mario Bava. Also appearing is the legendary Italian cinematographer. Lamberto Bava, Mario Bava’s son, a director specializing in horror, giallo and fantasy films and best known for A BLADE IN THE DARK (1983), DEMONS (1985), DEMONS 2 (1986) as well as a long list of made-for-television movies. Ruggero Deodato,  is the director of the original spaghetti western, DJANGO (1966) and is also known for CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1980) and the thriller, HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK (1980). Other guests include Fred Williamson, a.k.a “The Hammer”, a blaxploitation star of the ‘70s, who still gives it everything he’s got and Tony Todd, most notably known for his role as the CANDYMAN in the film with the same name. A DAY OF THE DEAD reunion was slated, but sadly has been cancelled. So, if you love horror, come on down and get your gore on!

Anime Weekend Atlanta, co-founded by Kool Kat Jason Merrill, at Cobb Galleria, featuring all the retro anime you could want, from informational panels (Anime Blinded Me With Science, Old School Classroom and the Mega 80s Panel) to screenings in several video rooms focusing on the foundations of anime with a focus on ASTRO BOY of the 60s up to the present! So, come on out and anime it up!

The living dead begin their gruesome and spooky haunts today with the Atlanta Zombie Apocolypse (AZA), a total immersion experience, throwing its victims right in the middle of a zombie outbreak, capable of causing a lifetime of terror! This journey is not for the faint of heart so, prepare to scream, prepare to cry and come get your zombie fightin’ skills on! Check out our Kool Kat Madeline Brumby, for details on previous years’ AZA and watch for our own scary sneak preview soon! The AZA runs until November 2, so you’ll have ample opportunity to kick some zombie tail!  Also launching tonight is award-winning homegrown haunt, Netherworld, scaring you this year with two attractions, The Dead Ones and Boogeyman.

The Red Light Café begins their International Pop Overthrow Music Festival, featuring the retro sounds of Blake Rainey & His Demons, The Shut-Ups, bringing in a new-wave resurgence, the ever popular Casper and The Cookies, a retro-revival group with sounds compared to the B-52s, and more. Eddie’s Attic is slingin’ the sounds of Richard Bicknell while Willy Jackson belts it out at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack and Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands gives it their all at Steve’s Live Music. If the bluesy twangy sounds of New Orleans is what you’re hankerin’ for, head on down to Smith’s Olde Bar to get your fill of Davis Rogan. For an 80s throwback, the Variety Playhouse is hosting Colin Hay, formerly lead vocalist of Men At Work or head on down to see Lionel Ritchie at Chastain Park. Nick Longo brings his jazzy sound, harkening the old school sounds that’ll have you up dancing under the dinosaurs at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX.

Saturday, September 28

Rumble on down to Hell on Wheels. In its 13th year, it promises to be ‘out of control’! So, head on up to Buford and say ‘hey’ to Kool Kat Right Reverend Andy Hawley of Psychobilly Freakout (Garage 71 Internet Radio). The event begins at 11 am, so come hell or high water, there are no excuses to miss this rockabilly rumblin’ extravaganza! Hell on Wheels promises a rockin’ good time with the upbeat and rockin’ sounds of the Sideburners, Grim Rooster and the thrash-grass sounds of The Living Deads that will keep you dancing till the pigs come home!

Day Two of the Twisted Fears Horror Weekend begins.  Doors open at 10 am, promising a horror-ific time! Day Two of Anime Weekend Atlanta includes the screening of Osamu Dezaki’s SPACE ADVENTURE COBRA (1982) in the 80s video room at 2 pm and don’t forget to bebop down in your best 40s and 50s gear to experience the BeBop Lounge, a jazz club echoing the sounds of legends like Dizzie Gillespie, Nina Simone, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and maybe even a little swing for those of you who want to boogie woogie!

The Star Bar hosts their annual Johnny Cash Tribute & Diabetes Benefit, featuring the nostalgic sounds of the Ghost Riders Car Club with Kool Kat Spike Fullerton on guitar, Slim Chance and the Convicts, the Sideburners, AM Gold with Kool Kat Joel Burkhart, and Atlanta’s ‘rockin’ and stompin’ blues band’,  Chicken and Pigs! All proceeds go to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, so it’s a swell chance to support a great cause while jammin’ to some good tunes!  House Rocker Johnson & The Shadows will be bluesin’ it up at Blind Willie’s while Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt will be rockin’ out with the Psycho-DeVilles at the Dixie Tavern in Marietta.  The sci-fi punk vaudeville burlesque collective, also known as Blast-Off Burlesque, presents presents FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS (1998), at their Blast Off Burlesque Taboo-La-La event at The Plaza Theater at 10 pm, with a live stage show followed by the screening. Come early for lobby shenanigans and a free cocktail, and read our Retro Review here. 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, September 29

Start your day with a bluegrass brunch with The Porch Bottom Boys at Big Tex from 11am to 1 pm. It is day three and your last chance this year to get your scare on and live to tell the tale at Atlanta’s premier horror convention at Twisted Fears Horror Weekend as well as getting your fill of anime from its conception to the most modern at Anime Weekend Atlanta.  The Plaza Theater’s Cineprov, Atlanta’s longest-running and award-winning movie-riffing shows presents NIGHT OF THE COMET (1984) at 7:30 pm.

Ongoing

Atlanta Zombie Apocolypse runs from Sept. 27 through Nov. 2. 

Netherworld haunts from Sept. 27 through Nov. 2.

LETTERS TO JACKIE: REMEMBERING PRESIDENT KENNEDY (2013), a two-hour documentary film that reveals the moving and powerful letters received by Jackie Kennedy in the months following the assassination of the President, is being screened at the The Plaza Theater from Sept. 23 to Sept. 26.

Every Tuesday night, Wednesday morning and Thursday night is Retro Cinema at Movie Tavern.

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!’

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.