ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Contributing Writer

Rock out while living la vida Retro and come check out what we have for you ‘This Week’! From vintage-inspired tunes to old-timey flicks, Retro Atlanta has it all! So, come on out and be the Kat’s Meow with Retro Atlanta this week!

Monday, April 7

Chill on down to the Actor’s Express tonight at 7 pm for their Cult Classic Cabaret featuring music from Sweeney Todd, Little Shop of Horrors, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and more, with a pre-party at 6 pm, so come on out and Time-Warp it up! 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.   Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! Blues on down to Blind Willie’s for an evening with Bill Sheffield! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a side of Dry White Toast with some finger lickin’ BBQ!
 
Tuesday, April 8

Get subliminal and join the conspiracy at The Plaza Theater as Splatter Cinema presents John Carpenter’s science-fiction flick of yuppie aliens vs. the rest of us, THEY LIVE (1988) at 9:30 with a special screening of The Biters’ ‘They Live’ tribute music video. And don’t forget to come early for some alien-tastic lobby shenanigans and classic horror trailers!  Or let Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and Syrens of the South seduce their way into your naughty little hearts at the Red Light Café at their Tease Tuesday: Spring Chickens &April Showers Edition where $10 gets you 10 sultry acts! 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 other Tuesday! Wipe those tears and dance the night away to the rowdy foot stompin’ Americana of the Boohoo Ramblers at Blind Willie’s!  Stomp on down to Big Tex for a night with Moira Nelligan & The Dixie Jigs and their old-fashioned Americana! Or boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta for a taste of Bill Sheffield’s acoustic roots and blues! 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.  Get the blues at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack with the J.T. Speed Band! Stomp on down to Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs for a night with 8^th of January! The Bob Page Trio gets bluesy at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint!  Help Charlotte save Wilbur at the Center for Puppetry Arts as they present ‘Charlotte’s Web’ through May 25^th!  Enter (if you dare) Hollywood’s world of illusion with William Holden and Gloria Swanson at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern at their screening of Billy Wilder’s classic, SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950) during their L.A. After Dark series’ screening at 7:30 pm! And the Midtown Art Cinema screens Jean Cocteau’s retelling of the classic fairy tale, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1946) at 7 pm!

Wednesday, April 9

It’s a gritty rock n roll revival at The Star Bar with Swank Sinatra, Naptaker, R_Garcia and Cinema Novo! The Earl gets rowdy and lawless with the old-time bluegrass-infused punk of I Want Whisky, Lily & The Tigers and Avi Jacob! Funk on down to the Variety Playhouse for a night of funky blues and soul with the Robert Cray Band and AJ Ghent! It’s Widespread Wednesday at Big Tex with Escape Vehicle! For some Dylan-style folk and Americana, make your way to the Red Clay Theater for Chuck Brodsky and Andy Offutt Irwin! Lola delivers some rockin’ blues at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint! Tad Robinson gets bluesy at Blind Willie’s! Get some soul at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack with The Hollidays! 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.  And take a trip with William Holden and Gloria Swanson to the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern as they screen Billy Wilder’s classic, SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950) during their L.A. After Dark series’ matinee screening at 11:30 am!

Thursday, April 10

Get a taste of Bob Dylan’s ‘Blonde on Blonde’ album at the Red Light Café as ATL Collective pays tribute by performing the album in its entirety! Get down and dirty at the Clermont Lounge with Kool Kat Spike Fullerton and the Ghost Riders Car Club! For a night of psychedelic and 70’s-inspired rock, make your way to Purgatory at the Masquerade for a night with Kadavar and Mothership! Punk on down to Wonderroot for Wicked Pretty, The Hotels, Tight Genes and Sunday Whiskey! For a little Rosanne Cash-style bluegrass and rock, stomp on down to the Red Clay Theater for Missy Raines & the New Hip and Poor Old Shine! 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! 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! 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! 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! The Unusual Suspects get the blues at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Get really retro with King Arthur, Guenevere and Sir Lancelot in the Broadway musical, ‘Camelot’ at the Georgia Ensemble Theatre through April 27^th! It’s your last chance to catch Billy Wilder’s classic, SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950) at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern during their L.A. After Dark series’ screening at 7:30 pm! And become a star at The Plaza Theater as their Cineprov group riff’s Albert Magnoli’s, PURPLE RAIN (1984) at 7:30!

Friday, April 11

Georgia State University’s School of Music presents Robert Ward’s operatic adaptation of Arthur Miller’s classic tale set during the 1692 Salem Witch Trials, ‘The Crucible’ running through Sunday, April 13^th! Or get old-fashioned country style and make your way to the Out of Box Theatre as they present ‘Always…Patsy Cline,’ delving into the friendship that spawned between Patsy and her most devoted fan, Louise Seger, running through April 27^th!  Get really retro at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center as the Atlanta Ballet presents Stephen Mills’ ‘Hamlet’ with music by Philip Glass, through Sunday, April 13^th!  Tonight begins the 78^th Annual Atlanta Dogwood Festival in Piedmont Park, spanning 3 days, chock full of live music, tasty food, art vendors, cultural performances and so much more! Tonight, you won’t want to miss The Georgia Flood, Partial Cinema, Norman Frank & The Ghost Dance and so much more!

Get your fill of retro-inspired down and dirty punk at The Earl with Turf War, Concord America, Ranch Ghost and Majestico! It’s a night of Delta blues and hillbilly fervor at The Star Bar with The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band and the Dex Romweber Duo! Rock on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with Jesse & the Great Perhaps, Beauregard & His Down Rights, Bahnof and Threadbare Skivvies! For a little Bob Dylan and Beatles-inspired tunes, make your way to the Basement for Interstellar and Sacred City! It’s a Halfway to Halloween Party at Legend Café, produced by Markster Con featuring costume contests and a musical lineup of industrial, Goth, 80s and electronica!  The Dirty Guv’nahs rock out with vintage zest along with Cereus Bright at Terminal West! The 5^th Annual Reagan Rock Prom invades Park Tavern in Piedmont Park with the Yacht Rock Review’s ‘yachty’ 80s jams and rockin’ 80’s fashion! ICON 80s: Music Video Dance Night gets rockin’ with their Guilty Pleasures Edition at Famous Pub, and don’t miss out every Friday night with a different theme (And check out our Kool Kat interview with VJ Anthony coming this week!) Fat Matt’s Rib Shack gets bluesy with Lady D while Blind Willie’s has Sandra Hall & The Shadows! The Shuffle Junkies dish out the blues and classic rock at Hottie Hawgs BBQ!  Swami Gone Bananas delivers a night of psychedelic 70’s rock at the Northside Tavern while Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs delivers decades’ worth of pop folk with Randall Bramblett and Hank Barbee! It’s a night of New Orleans’ funk, blues and jazz under the dinosaurs at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX event with The Mar-Tans! Donna Hopkins gets rootsy, rock-style down at the Moonshadow Tavern in Tucker! Emory Cinematheque screens Louis Malle’s ATLANTIC CITY (1980) during their Burt Lancaster: Centennial Film Fest series! 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, April 12

Hey Daddy-O! Rev on down to the Dixie Tavern for Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho-DeVilles!  Punk on down to The Star Bar for the Zoners and Onchi’s 7” Release Party with the Get High Boys! It’s Day 2 of the 78^th Annual Atlanta Dogwood Festival at Piedmont Park and you won’t want to miss the retro sounds of 38^th Parallel, Reaspec, Jubee & The Morning After and Secondhand Swagger! Take a magic carpet ride through the historic Arabian-themed Fox Theater as they kick off their ‘Spring Fling withWild Things’ tours running every Saturday through May 17^th, featuring animals from ZooAtlanta, where will have a chance to mingle with Kool Kat Scott Hardin, the Fox Theater’s projectionist since 1978!  Stomp on down to Eddie’s Attic for a night of bluegrass with the Packway Handle Band! Francine Reed delivers a night of sultry blues at Blind Willie’s while Ike Stubblefield gets down and dirty at Northside Tavern! It’s a night of Americana and cosmic rockin’ boogie at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs with Steve Baskin and Scott Shiflett’s Client 9 from Outer Space with Playing on the Planet, followed by the ‘psychedelic junkyard roots’ of RollingNowhere! Get swampy at Big Tex as Zydeco Ya Ya delivers a night of Cajun blues and swing! For a night of classic old-school rock, make your way to Wonderroot for Scarlett, Livingstone and Forecaster! The Michelle Malone Banned rocks out at the Crimson Moon Café! The Family Dog delivers a night of rockin’ blues with TheBrotherland! Stomp on down to Terminal West for the Steep Canyon Rangers and CicadaRhythm! Lady T gets bluesy at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets old-school and bluesy with Mac Arnold & Plate Full of Blues with Little G Weevil! 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, April 13

Dita Von Teese delivers a night of temptations and sultry tease at her “Burlesque: Strip Strip Hooray!” Variety Show at the Tabernacle! It’s day 3 and your last chance to catch the 78^th Annual Atlanta Dogwood Festival, featuring a musical lineup of Jack Preston & Dojo Collective, Neil Cribbs, All the Locals and Sailing to Denver! It’s a bluegrass brunch at Big Tex with The Cohen Brother’s Band at 11:30 am! Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs delivers their Gypsy Jazz Brunch offering up a plate of Hot Club jamming and Parisian Swing with Kool Kat Amy Pike and the Bonaventure Quartet from 12:30 to 3:30 pm every 2^nd & 4^th Sunday! It’s a hootenanny ‘Dunch’ at The Earl with Georgia Slim & The Stovetop Ramblers! Francine Reed and The Jez Graham Trio get bluesy at The Family Dog! For some Americana and foot-stompin’ bluegrass, make your way to Eddie’s Attic for The Brothers Comatose with special guests, BattlefieldCollective! And make your way to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack and get rockin’ with Fatback Deluxe!

Ongoing

It’s a hard knock life at the Atlanta Lyric Theater as they present ‘Annie’ through April 20^th!

Georgia Ensemble Theatre gets really retro with ‘Camelot’ Broadway-style through April 27^th!

Out of Box Theatre presents ‘Always…Patsy Cline,’ running through April 27^th!

Take a magic carpet ride through the historic Arabian-themed Fox Theater as they kick off their ‘Spring Fling withWild Things’ tours running through May 17^th!

Center for Puppetry Arts spins ‘Charlotte’s Web’ through May 25^th!

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 other 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.