ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Contributing Writer

Baby, it’s cold outside! But no worries!  Retro Atlanta promises to get you warm and toasty with a week of rockin’ good times, filled to the brim with nostalgic holiday goodness! So get hip to the jive and come on out to see what Retro Atlanta has in store for you!     

Monday, December 16

Forget the horrors of Monday and get rocked at the Masquerade as they get mischievous and primal with an evening of punk rock and horror with the Misfits, The Attack, Kool Kats Ryan Howard, Derek Obscura and Jamie Robertson of the Casket Creatures and Burn Like Fire! 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. Or boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam!  Head on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a side of Dry White Toast with some finger lickin’ BBQ!  And make your way to Blind Willie’s and get your blues fix with The Ringers!  

Tuesday, December 17

For an evening of family-friendly holiday nostalgic goodness, join Kool Kat Jeffrey Butzer at The Strand Theater as he and TT Mahoney offer a jazzy musical tribute to Vince Guaraldi’s PEANUTS score in their annual ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ show (See ATLRetro’s review here)!  The Show will open with Jeffrey Butzer’s regular gig, Jeffrey Butzer and the Bicycle Eaters followed by Chad Shivers & The Silent Knights’ Beach Boys Christmas Tribute! This holiday show has become an Atlanta tradition and one you won’t want to miss!

Or boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta for a taste of Bill Sheffield’s acoustic roots and there’s no need to cry at Blind Willie’s as the Boo Hoo Ramblers get rockin’ bluesy! 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! Stomp on down to  Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs for a bluegrass jam with the fiddlin’ stylings of Joe Craven! And get cozy with the Griswolds at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern at their screening of Jeremiah Chechik’s holiday cult classic, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION (1989) during their Home For The Holidays series at 7:30 pm!

Wednesday, December 18

Get low-down, dirty and horror-struck holiday-style at the Clermont Lounge tonight at their rockin’ Slaytanic XXXmas Show promising to slay the stage with Kool Kat Shane Morton and Super X-13, Legion X and a little latin rock and horror punk fusion with Los Meesfits and a photo-op with Santa Circus Envy!  Rock on over to The Earl for their 8^th Annual Keith Richards Bash hosted by and featuring Chicken and Pigs, plus over 20 guest singers as they salute the ‘world’s least likely septuagenarian’!  Proceeds benefit ovarian cancer research through the Ovarian Cycle Atlanta, so rock out to a good cause! It’s a night of ‘gentlemen’ at Vinyl tonight as Neil Cribbs & The Rough Gentlemen get you revved up with their rockin’ blues and soul followed by Caleb Warren & The Perfect Gentlemen’s old timey string jazz and ragtime blues!  Or let Frank Barham jazz you up at the Elliott Street Pub! Swing on over to Blind Willie’s and catch a glimpse of Old Blue Eyes as The Electromatics revive a little Sinatra and a little of that Chicago/West Coast blues and swing!  Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires up the blues! Or maybe splash on over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for some rockin’ blues, soul and funk with Georgia Flood! 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 experience the mayhem that is the holidays at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern at their screening of Jeremiah Chechik’s holiday cult classic, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION (1989) during their Home For The Holidays series at 11:30 am!

Thursday, December 19

Krampus is coming so make sure the wee ones are safely tucked in their little warm beds while you rock on over to 7 Stages for their 4^th installment of Krampus Xmas! Experience the wickedly enticing desires of Dr. Faust and celebrate in true rock n roll style with The Little Five Points Rock Star Orchestra, the ever seductive Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and her Syrens of the South and the 7 Stages Hand Bell Choir! It’s an evening of holiday mischief and mayhem you won’t want to miss!

Fiddle on down to Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs for an evening of bluegrass and folk with Rachel Baiman and Caroline Spence followed by Donna Hopkins offering up some foot-stompin’ rock n soul! Or make your way to The Family Dog as The David Ellington Trio with Kayla Taylor gets jazzy in their rendition of Vince Guaraldi’s PEANUTS score  in “A Charlie Brown Christmas”!  Or make your way 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. Or 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! 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 Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner delivers some honky-tonk blues while the Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with The Breeze Kings! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas while Blind Willie’s promises a jamming good time with the sounds and ‘blues woman power’ of Beverly ‘Guitar’ Watkins! It’s 80s/90s Retro Video Night with free drinks ’til 10 at The Shelter. Get your boogie on at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village. And let the Griswolds show you how the holidays are done at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern as they screen Jeremiah Chechik’s holiday cult classic, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION (1989) during their Home For The Holidays series at 7:30 pm!

Friday, December 20

Kool Kat Jeffrey Butzer and TT Mahoney with Robby Handly are at it again as they offer their musical tribute to Vince Guaraldi’s 40 minute PEANUTS score for 2 nights in their 6^th annual ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ adult show at The Earl!  The Show will open with Jeffrey Butzer’s regular gig, Jeffrey Butzer and the Bicycle Eaters followed by The Small Reactions’ Rock n roll Christmas Extravaganza of rockin’ Christmas covers by The Sonics, the Ramones, The Wailers and many more! So, get jazzy and nostalgic at The Earl tonight!

Atlanta pays tribute to some rockin’’ bands this evening!  Smith’s Olde Bar has the Yacht Rock Review’s Please Please Rock Me paying homage to The Beatles, those famous lads across the pond while Abbey Road Live!, the world’s premier cover band rocks out to The Beatles’ vast catalogue with complete album performances at the Variety Playhouse! For a tribute to some good old southern rock, boogie on down to Vinyl as Revival’s An Allman Brothers Experience celebrates the 40^th anniversary of the classic “Brothers and Sisters” album offering an evening playing the album in its entirety!

Rev on down to The Star Bar as they get deliver their two-day Toys For Tots Benefit Show featuring a variety of honkytonkin’’ rockabilly and surf retro tunes with the Black Top Rockets, Cletis & His City Cousins, Kool Kat Julea Thomerson & Her Dear Johns and The Mystery Men!  It’s Pin-Up Girls & Rockabilly Night at Stix Bar in Villa Rica, so rev on over and rock out with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt and his Psycho-DeVilles! The Red Clay Theater gets holiday nostalgic with Robert Henson & Friends as they get jazzy with their rendition of Vince Guaraldi’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas” score! For an evening of folk and swing, make you’re your way to Crimson Moon Café for their Winter Solstice Show with the Solstice Sisters! Sandra Hall & The Shadows gets bluesy at Blind Willie’s! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack has some rockin’ blues with Rough Draft while Darwin’s Burgers & Blues offers a night of British blues and rock with Marty Manous! Big Tex gets retro and jazzy with Myles Brown! Cha-cha on down to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX for a cocktail or two and dance the night away at their Salsa Dance Night featuring the Salsambo Dance Studio! And The Plaza Theater gets musical with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire as they screen Mark Sanrich’s classic holiday film, HOLIDAY INN (1942), featuring Irving Berlin’s classic holiday tune, “White Christmas” written for the film, running through Dec. 24!

Saturday, December 21

Kool Kat “Big Mike” Geier and his Kingsized Rock-n-roll Orchestra is putting on his Kingsized Holiday Jubilee at the Variety Playhouse featuring Dames Aflame and a Really Big Santa!  So, get dolled up and don’t forget your dancin’ shoes and boogie on down for a little signature glitz and glamour and dance the night away to some tinsel-tune traditions with the sounds of Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, the Grinch and more!

Get jazzy and rock on over to The Earl for a second night of Kool Kat Jeffrey Butzer and TT Mahoney’s musical tribute to Vince Guaraldi’s 40 minute PEANUTS score, ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ show! It’s night two of The Star Bar’s Toys For Tots Benefit Show featuring the Ghost Riders Car Club with Kool Kat Spike Fullerton, Dusty Bones & The Baby Haters, Bully, The Serenaders and Kenny Howes & The Wow!  Or make your way to the Red Clay Theater for an evening of holiday southern rock and bluegrass at Barry Waldrep’s Jingle Jam! And it’s your last chance to celebrate all that is wickedly enticing and mischievous at the Krampus Xmas show at 7 Stages!

Rock on over to the Red Light Café and catch the madness and absurdity that is, Colonel Bruce Hampton as he slings over 50 years worth of that funky, jazz-infused rhythm along with Madrid Express featuring Bill Sheffield!  The Basement gets rockin’ as Electric Western presents their Keep on Movin’ Rock and Soul Dance Party! So, put on those dancin’ shoes and get ready for a night of retro rock, Motown, funk, Big Band and some jumpin’ blues! Get sticky sweet at Eddie’s Attic for a blues, rock n roll roots jam with Soul Suga’ featuring Yonrico Scott and Diane Durrett! Blues it on down to Blind Willie’s for a night with “Muddy’s Rising Son”, Big Bill Morganfield! Or rock on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues and get funky with the Georgia Flood! Head on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a side of Dry White Toast with some finger lickin’ BBQ!  Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs hosts a Men of Jazz night with the Baraszu Brothers, Frankie Lee Robinson and Tommie Macon & The Gentle Men of Jazz! Rock on over to the Northside Tavern for a blues showdown as Eddie Tigner and Lola offer an evening of dueling pianos! Get funky at Big Tex with the Georgia Soul Council!  Or head out to the Crimson Moon Café for some southern-fried blues with EG Kight! Groove on down to The Family Dog as they get funky with The Heritage! 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, December 22

It’s a Diva Christmas at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs with Deb Bowman, Audrey Shakir, Theresa Hightower and Karla Harris! Or make your way to The Earl as they get funky with Vito Romeo! Slither on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack and rock out with Snake Legs! It’s your last chance to catch The David Ellington Trio with Kayla Taylor as they get jazzy in their rendition of Vince Guaraldi’s PEANUTS score  in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” at The Family Dog! And swing on down to Eddie’s Attic as Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-member orchestra takes the stage big band-style!

Ongoing

The Plaza Theater gets musical with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire as they screen Mark Sanrich’s classic holiday film, HOLIDAY INN (1942), featuring Irving Berlin’s classic holiday tune, “White Christmas” written for the film, running through Dec. 24!

Fox Theater Holiday Tours with Kool Kat Scott Hardin, the Fox Theater’s projectionist since 1978 and all sorts of goodies runs until Dec. 29!

The Strand Theater’s ‘A Christmas Tradition’ holiday classic song and dance review runs until Dec. 22! (LAST CHANCE!)

Alliance Theater presents Charles Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL which spooks through Dec. 29!

New American Shakespeare Tavern presents Charles Dickens’ classic holiday fare, A CHRISTMAS CAROL Scrooging through December 23.

ARTStation presents A BROADWAY CHRISTMAS CAROL through December 22!  (LAST CHANCE!)

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.