ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Contributing Writer

So many swell happenings in Retro Atlanta this week! Take a break from the mind-numbing daily grind and see what we have in store for you!  Be the bee’s knees and get filled to the brim with the best Retro acts in town! Get rocked, boogie-on-down, rev on out and swing on by as Retro Atlanta offers you a week of ramblin’ good times!

Monday, November 4

Rock on down to Terminal West and get psychedelic with King Kahn & The Shrines and rock out with The Coathangers as they get down and dirty! For an evening of some Motown-inspired soul-infused indie pop, skip on over to the Buckhead Theater for a night of Fitz & The Tantrums and Capital Cities! Blues it on down to Blind Willie’s for a rockin’ good time with Bill Sheffield! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam!  Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month. And pork it up with Pead Boy & The Pork Bellies at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack.

Tuesday, November 5

For a little biting satire of the French persuasion, stroll on down to the Midtown Art Cinema for their screening of Jean Renoir’s THE RULES OF THE GAME (1939) in their Midtown Cinema Classics Series at 6:45 pm with a Q&A afterwards! Boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta for a taste of Bill Sheffield’s acoustic roots and blues or hit up Blind Willie’s for some 60s soul and rock n roll with the The Hollidays! Steve’s Live Music hosts the Georgia Crackers as they lead their vintage 20s hillbilly bluegrass pickin’ and folk sing-a-long! 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. For an evening of old-school industrial, get electric with the ultra-heavy pioneering beats of KMFDM at Terminal West! Get ready for some down and dirty Christmas-Eve action at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern as Bruce Willis gets rowdy in John McTiernan’s DIE HARD (1988) in their Home For the Holidays series’ screening at 7:30 pm!

Wednesday, November 6

Groove on down to Eddie’s Attic for a night of boogie-woogie with the energetic 50s and 60s soul-inspired goodness of Kool Kats Ruby Velle & the Soulphonics and the soulful, jazzy reggae of Juliette Ashby. For a night of rootin’ tootin’ folky Americana, head on over to Smith’s Olde Bar as Dan Bern takes the stage and stay for a taste of some ‘gyspy swingin’, fire breathing circus freaks’ with Caravan of Thieves! Put on your dancin’ shoes and skip on over to East Atlanta’s Graveyard Tavern for their Graveyard Swing Night, held the first Wednesday of every month, promising an evening of swingin’ jazz and jive with the Savoy Kings!  Rock on over to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires up the blues! Get red hot and low-down at Blind Willie’s for the saucy blues of Andrew Black or rock on over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a night of “Frankie Lee” Robinson belting out some smoky blues in his Frankie’s Blues Mission! Head on over to Steve’s Live Music for a foot-stompin’ good time with the Russian gypsy tunes of Debauche! Or spend the night with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder as Emory’s Cinematheque gets darkly comedic in their screening of Mel Brooks’ THE PRODUCERS (1967) during their American Comedy Classics series at Emory’s White Hall at 7:30 pm! It’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.  Get old-school heavy at The Shelter for their Dark Retro Night for an evening of hard electro, industrial and dark retro at 9 pm! And don’t forget to get in on the action as the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern screens John McTiernan’s DIE HARD (1988) in their Home For the Holidays series’ matinee at 11:30 am!

Thursday, November 7

Rock on over to the Red Light Café and get cosmic as they celebrate and honor the legendary Gram Parsons with their Gram Parsons’ Birthday Tribute!  You are guaranteed a stellar evening filled with the dancin’ and dreamin’ tunes of Cosmic West, beltin’ out Parsons covers and old western American melodies while Whiskey Belt takes the stage with some nitty gritty, boot stompin’ honky-tonk reminiscent of the 50s Grand Ole Opry and Interstate, following in the legend’s footsteps with their West Coast cosmic American rock! Take a trip to The Star Bar for some psychedelic rock with deadCAT or float on over to The Earl for Nik Turner’s Hawkwind rockin’ some 60s and 70s space rituals!

The Plaza Theater gets criminal and New-Wave French-style as they screen Francois Truffaut’s semi-autobiographical first film, THE 400 BLOWS (1959) in their Fall Focus on Directors series at 9:30 pm!  Get wickedly thrilled and head on over to the Georgia Ensemble Theatre in Roswell as they present Ira Levin’s 1978 theatrical thriller, DEATHTRAP which runs until Nov. 24^th, directed by Robert J. Farley! Head on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their weekly Occupy Edgewood event featuring DJs Rene Dellefont & Brian Parris as they offer up the sounds of The Smiths and The Cure and all the morose tunes your black little heart desires. Groove on over to The Loft for some 60s and 70s surf rock and soul doo wop’n rock n roll with The Mowglis, the Kopecky Family Band and The Rocketboys! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner delivers some honky-tonk blues while the Northside Tavern presents the classic 50s Chicago-style blues of The Breeze Kings. Get teary-eyed and blues it up at Blind Willie’s with Weepin’ Tommy Brown & The Shadows while Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! It’s 80s/90s Retro Video Night with free drinks ’til 10 at The Shelter. Hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a few cocktails with Kool Kat “Big Mike” Geier and his Polynesian pop lounge band, Tonga Hiti! 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 jump in on the action as the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern screens John McTiernan’s DIE HARD (1988) in their Home For the Holidays series’ at 7:30 pm!

Friday, November 8

Spook on over to The Plaza Theater as they kick off their 8^th annual 2-day Buried Alive Horror Film Festival!  You won’t want to miss out on the gore and terror in Atlanta’s premier horror film festival showcasing true underground filmmaking and the best independent horror in the Southeast! The heart-stopping fun begins at 7:30 pm with their ‘Evil Everywhere’ Shorts Program featuring dark and spooky tales of Ed Gein, dark secret rooms, gruesome discoveries, Dante’s Inferno, creepy hitchhikers and monsters galore! At 9:30 their Opening Night Feature is a tormenting tale of murder and mayhem, PIECES OF TALENT, by Joe Stauffer and will be followed by the Opening Night Party at 11:30 pm, held at The Workshop, where you can haunt with the filmmakers from all over the globe and even catch a few episodes of “Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell” being projected outdoors.  So, if you’re looking for an evening of blood curdling fear, make your way to The Plaza Theater and get creepy cozy with the murderous monsters of filmmaking mayhem!

If you can’t stomach the horror and need something a little more action-packed and adventurous with a hint of comedy, come on by The Plaza Theater anyway as they begin their Samurai Series with Akira Kurosawa’s THE HIDDEN FORTESS (1959) at 7:30! Or cross the pond and make your way to Smith’s Olde Bar as they present Yacht Rock Review’s Beatles Tribute band, Please, Please Rock Me in the Main Room at 8 pm! Head to the Atlanta Room and rock out with the Geisha Hit Squad and their retro-inspired indie prog rock! Get your fill of monster wrastlin’ with Dragula, Dark Mon, The Wolfmen, the MCW Phantom and much more at Club Famous as Monstrosity Championship Wrestling and Kool Kat Shane Morton celebrates their 1^st gore-filled anniversary and belated monstrous Halloween Party with Crypt 24’s horror-inspired psychobilly! Or make your way down the rabbit hole and get mad, mad, mad at The Shelter as they present their Alice in Wonderland Costume Ball!

Rock on over to The Star Bar for a night with former Pleasure Club singer, James Hall! Or get a taste of some garage glam folk with the sounds of He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister at Terminal West! Blind Willie’s gets down with Burnt Bacon and their smoky blues and Creole jams while Biscuit Miller & The Mix get funky at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! For a little bluegrass and folksy Americana, head on over to Eddie’s Attic for an evening with Sierra Hull! Get funky at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX for a cocktail or two and boogie on down to the New Orleans’ sounds of The Mar-Tans!

Saturday, November 9

It’s Day 2 and your last chance to get terrorized at The Plaza Theater’s 8th annual Buried Alive Horror Film Festival! Today’s events include: the ‘Weird and Wild’ Shorts program which promise to leave you in shock and awe with a little time travel, serial killers, werewolves, clowns, nightmares, medieval executioners and much more, the ‘International Terror: Shorts From Around The World’ program which begins at 5:30 pm, the ‘Drawn & Quartered: Animation’ program which begins at 7:00 pm and the ‘Closing Night Feature’, THANATOMORPHOSE, a grisly tale of a girl and her rotting flesh, by Eric Faladreau at 11:00 pm followed by the Awards Ceremonies! So, come on down and spend your weekend with some wonderfully warped and morbid creators!

Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt will be rockin’ out with the Psycho-DeVilles at the Dixie Tavern in Marietta, so get your dancin’ shoes on and rev on over! Shimmy on down to the Red Light Café and spend the night with Amy Sigil of Atlanta Fusion Belly Dance for their Belly Dance Gone Strong event, featuring over 25 dancers at 8 pm! Or head back to high school and get bloody royal at The Shelter’s Atlanta Monster Prom featuring a monster make-up competition, monster costume contests and the crowning of Ghoul King and Ghoul Queen, with special guest Roy Wooley of Syfy’s Face Off! Get adventurous and head on over to The Plaza Theater for Akira Kurasawa’s SEVEN SAMURAI (1954) featured in their Samurai Series’ screenings at 2 pm and 7:30 pm! The Gr8fl Dude rocks out with his renditions of the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan and others at The Family Dog while Rosco Bandana’s gypsy fan-fare blues Americana takes the stage at Smith’s Olde Bar! Groove on over to Terminal West and boogie down with The Werk’s psychedelic dance funk or get your second helping of Burnt Bacon at Blind Willie’s! Stomp on over to the Crimson Moon Café to catch the Grassland String Band or skip on over to hear The Greencards at Eddie’s Attic! Head on over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for some good ole BBQ and SaNa Blues! Get experimental and bluesy with The Ori Naftaly Band at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues!  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, November 10

Start your day with a Bluegrass Brunch with the Kris Youmans Band at Big Tex in Decatur from 11am to 1 pm.  Jump, jive and wail on down to Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs for their Jazz Lunch featuring Big Band Atlanta and their 18-piece band swingin’ to some swell tunes!  It’s your last chance to catch Francois Truffaut’s THE 400 BLOWS (1959) at The Plaza Theater’s Fall Focus on Director’s series’ 1 pm matinee or maybe learn a few new moves as you take in Akira Kurasawa’s YOJIMBO (1961) during their Samurai Series’ 2 pm matinee! Stomp on over to The Earl for some rockin’ old timey country blues with Georgia Slim and The Stovetop Ramblers! Catch Lisa Marie Presley as she gets down and bluesy at Eddie’s Attic or rock on over to Center Stage to catch a little folk punk rock with Frank Turner & The Sleepy Souls! The Family Dog presents the bluesy sounds of the Jez Graham Trio and Joe Gransden while Tony Bryant gets bluesy at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Uncle Sugar gets soulful at the Northside Tavern. And for a night of sultry kink, black leather and broken hearts, make your way to the Masquerade for their Suicide Girls Blackheart Burlesque event!

Ongoing

Agatha’s A Taste of Mystery’s who-done-it mystery dinner show, ‘SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW…SOMEONE DIES!’ runs from Oct. 7 through Nov. 6.

Atlanta Lyric Theater gets jazzy with the GUYS AND DOLLS from Oct. 25 through Nov. 10.

Georgia Ensemble Theatre presents Ira Levin’s 1978 theatrical thriller, DEATHTRAP runs Nov. 7 through Nov. 24.

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.