by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor
Come on down and see what swell shenanigans we’ve dug up for you in Retro Atlanta this week ‘cause it’s the Kat’s meow with all the revved up honky-tonkin’ ‘billy and surf rock you could ever want! And you won’t want to miss all the ragtime, Dixieland Prohibition-era pandemonium! Sell your soul and get a bloody taste of some hellish classic horror! Get your fill of vintage films and boogie on down to the best funk and blues in town! So get hep to the jive and rock out in Retro Atlanta this week!
Monday, September 28
Do the Tango and get your 80s fix at Community Smith with their screening of Emile Ardolino’s DIRTY DANCING (1987) at 8pm, during their “Movie Mondays in the Garden” series! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! Blues it up with Barrelhouse Bob Page at Blind Willie’s! Skye Paige, “Queen of Slide Guitar” rocks out at the Little Vinyl Lounge! Get folksy with Jamie Laval at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Get funky and 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!’ Blast-Off Burlesque starts your week off right with a night of adults-only trivia at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club at 8:30pm! Truett Lollis delivers a night of blues and soul at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack as they dish out a night of blues with Pead Boy & the Pork Bellies!
Tuesday, September 29
Stomp on down to the Variety Playhouse for a night with Lucinda Williams! Get some rock ‘n’ soul with The Mynabirds and Bad Bad Hats at Aisle 5! It’s Americana Open Mic Night at the Red Light Café, so stomp on down as Beedle Andrews dishes out a night of bluegrass, folk, blues, jazz and more! Blind Willie’s delivers a night of rockin’ blues and Americana with the Boohoo Ramblers! It’s a night of trivia and corndogs at Pallookaville, with their “Trivial Matters” event! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with their Retro-Soul, Funk ‘80s & ‘90s Dance Party! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm! And as always, The Entertainment Crackers get bluesy with their folksy Americana at the Northside Tavern!
Wednesday, September 30
Intergalactic robots invade theatres across Atlanta at 7pm with a special “Signature Edition” screening of Brad Bird’s THE IRON GIANT (1999) [Hollywood Stadium 24 in Chamblee, Perimeter Pointe 10; AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 in Lawrenceville; AMC Avenue Forsyth 12 in Cumming; Avalon Stadium 12 in Alpharetta; AMC Barrett Commons 24 in Kennesaw; AMC Southlake 24 in Morrow; Regal McDonough Stadium 16; and Georgian Stadium in Newnan]! Or catch Boaz Yakin’s REMEMBER THE TITANS (2000) at Cinefest running through Oct. 2! Get funky with Mother’s Finest at Eddie’s Attic! Or get your reggae roots fix with the Wailers at Terminal West! Get some southern soul and rock out with Gareth Asher & the Earthlings and Melodime at Smith’s Olde Bar! Blind Willie’s delivers a night of Chicago and West Coast blues with the Electromatics! Jazz it up with The Gordon Vernick Quartet at the Red Light Café! Get a second helping of Lucinda Williams at the Variety Playhouse! Get funky with The Georgia Flood’s rockin’ blues at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! It’s a hootenanny and a half at The Star Bar with their Cowboy Karaoke event, featuring live-band old-time country and western tunes! Rock on downstairs to the Little Vinyl Lounge for a night of retro shenanigans with Kool Kat Jeff Clark and Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! St. James Live! delivers their Hump Days Blues night, getting classic blues-style every Wednesday! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.
Thursday, October 1
Stomp on down to the Masquerade for a night of old-time folk ‘n’ bluegrass with Stevie Tombstone and Ralph White! Take a crack at Richard Park’s MIAMI CONNECTION (1987) during Riff Trax Live 2015, screening in theatres across Atlanta [Hollywood Stadium 24 in Chamblee, Perimeter Pointe 10; AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 in Lawrenceville; Avalon Stadium 12 in Alpharetta; AMC Barrett Commons 24 in Kennesaw; Cinemark Tinseltown 17 in Fayetteville; GTC Merchant’s Walk Stadium 12 in Marietta; Regal McDonough Stadium 16; and Georgian Stadium in Newnan]! Rock out and get psycho-billy’d at The Star Bar with Voodoo Glow Skulls, The Phenomenauts and Piñata Protest! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so surf on down to Trader Vic’s for a helluva island party! Rock out and get the blues with Beverly “Guitar” Watkins at Blind Willie’s! Bluegrass it up at the Red Light Café with the Jason Kenney Band, CaroMia and Little Country Giants! Jazz it up with Jeff Bradshaw at Suite Food Lounge! Get funky at Smith’s Olde Bar with Bonerama, the Clibber Jones Ensemble and Secondhand Swagger! Get your rowdy folk fix at 529 with Onward, Etc., American Opera, The Ghost Pines and Joshua Loner! Rock out with Avers and The Marrows at the Drunken Unicorn! 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! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! And as always, get your boogie on at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.
Friday, October 2
The horror! The horror! Atlanta kicks off its Halloween celebrations with a bang! Spook up the weekend with a whole lotta horror classics by haunting on down to the second annual Monsterama Convention invading the Marriott Perimeter Center and haunting all your senses through August 4! Experience three horrorific tracks (Main, Literary and Maker) while perusing the monsterific vender tables. Catch a haunting glimpse of classic horror and monstrous tales with the legendary “Gill-Man”/”The Creature”, actor, screenwriter, underwater stuntman and more, Ricou Browning (See our Kool Kat interview soon!); independent filmmaker Larry Blamire (THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA); horror history expert and documentarian, Kool Kat Daniel Griffith of Ballyhoo Motion Pictures, Kool Kat Shane Morton, ghost host with the most, a.k.a. Professor Morte, Victoria Price (daughter of the legendary Vincent Price), legendary actresses, Lynn Lowry (THE CRAZIES; SHIVERS) and Candy Clark (AMERICAN GRAFFITI; THE GIRL WHO FELL TO EARTH); glamour ghoul Kool Kat Madeline Brumby and so much more! Rock out to some Victorian chamber metal with Valentine Wolfe and swim it up with the Creature and pals at the Black Lagoon Tiki Luau! And don’t forget to catch a helluva lot of 16mm screenings including Roddenberry’s made-for-TV movie, SPECTRE (1977); Sam Newfield’s THE MAD MONSTER (1942); Michael Reeves’ THE CONQUEROR WORM (1968); Charles Laugton’s THE ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932) and more! So, come on down for the horror that is the Monsterama Convention and get your classic horror fix! Get horrified at The Plaza Theater with their screenings of Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING (1980), running through Oct. 8; and Tod Browning’s FREAKS (1932), screening through Oct. 4! Or shock it up with the adults-only (and last season at its current location) Chambers of Horror Haunted House, spooking through Nov. 1 with limited dates! And you won’t want to miss Netherworld Haunted House’s horrorific 19th season, gorrifying through Nov. 1!
Rock on down to The Star Bar for their Rock and Roll High School: Ramones Tribute Show, featuring Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt & the Psycho-Devilles, Red Rocket Deluxe, McPherson Struts, Cadillac Junkies, the Mystery Men?, Ram-Ones, The Aggravated and more! Or get saucy at Paris on Ponce with their vintage-themed Body Art Cabaret! Blues it up with Aretta Woodruff & the Revue Band at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Rock out retro-indie style with Luna and Matt Hollywood & the Bad Feelings at Terminal West! Get rootsy with Cornmeal, Migrant Worker and Liz Brasher at Smith’s Olde Bar! Get your ‘60s indie pop fix with Syndey Eloise & The Palms at Mass Collective! Celebrate 40 years with Dr. Frank-N-Furter and Jim Sharman’s cult classic, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) at AMC Phipps Plaza at 10pm! Stomp on down to the Variety Playhouse for a night with Lucero! Get old-timey at Steve’s Live Music with The Luxury Kings and The Marlatov Cocktails! Blues it up with George Hughley & the Shadows at Blind Willie’s! Get funky under the dinosaurs with The Mar-Tans at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX event! 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, October 3
Day 2 of the Monsterama Convention pays tribute to the infamous horror hound Christopher Lee with panels and screenings, including Terrence Fisher/Frank Winterstein’s SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE DEADLY NECKLACE (1962), Jess Franco’s COUNT DRACULA (1970); Robin Hardy’s THE WICKER MAN (1973) and more! Learn some haunting cinematic and television history with Professor Morte’s Silver Scream Spook Show’s screening of Ernest B. Shoedsack/Merian C. Cooper’s KING KONG (1933) and a screening of Kool Kat Daniel Griffith’s documentary, AS TIMELESS AS INFINITY: THE TWILIGHT ZONE LEGACY! You won’t want to miss the Monster Prom, dedicated to our favorite monster kid, Mark Schemanske! And stick around for a whole lotta horrorific classics including James Whale’s BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935), Nathan Juran’s JACK THE GIANT KILLER (1962), Mario Bava’s BLACK SUNDAY (1960) and so much more! The two-day Candler Park Fall Fest kicks off today with an artist’s market, a tour of homes, tasty food and a rockin’ musical line-up with 4th Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra; Voodoo Po Boys; Bogey & the Viceroy; Clashinista; Smithsonian; Kool Kats Gringo Star and more! Get old-school during the Afropunk Fest in Central Park, rockin’ out through Oct. 4, with Public Enemy, Thundercat and more!
The Star Bar delivers a hootenanny and a half with their annual Johnny Cash Tribute & Diabetes Benefit featuring Kool Kat Spike Fullerton and the Ghost Riders Car Club; Dry Gulch; The Downer Brothers; Chickens & Pigs; The Sideburners; Slim Chance & the Convicts; Chance McColl and Al Shelton! Or head downstairs to the Little Vinyl Lounge for their All 90s All Vinyl party! Rock out at The Earl with Reigning Sound and the Subsonics! Get your old-time rockabilly fix with Roxie Watson at Eddie’s Attic! Get your ‘90s alt-rock fix with Collective Soul and Kevn Kinney at the Tabernacle! The Atlanta Opera presents Giocomo’s “La boheme” at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, running through Oct. 11! Hillbilly it up with the Vaudvillains at the Crimson Moon Café! Make your way to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with Abbey Road Live! Get another chance to celebrate 40 years with Dr. Frank-N-Furter and Jim Sharman’s cult classic, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) at AMC Phipps Plaza at 10pm! Sandra Hall & the Shadows get the blues at Blind Willie’s! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night! 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, October 4
Get really retro and Victorian today at the Historic Oakland Cemetery as they present their 36th Annual Sunday in the Park Victorian Street Festival, featuring food (our pals, Pallookaville and more), fun and entertainment! Check out the artists’ market, living history demonstrations, storytellers, spooky mausoleums, Victorian costume contests and carriage tours. And you won’t want to miss their vintage musical line-up with the Atlanta Bluegrass Allstars; High Tea; Five Long Years; The Bow Weevils; The Ghosts Project and so much more! It’s day 3 and your last chance to get your classic horror fix at the Monsterama Convention, featuring a brunch with Victoria Price and screenings of Robert Siodmak/Erle C. Kenton’s SON OF DRACULA (1942); Antonio Margheriti’s CASTLE OF BLOOD (1964); George Romero’s THE CRAZIES (1973) and more! It’ll be a day you won’t want to miss and a perfect ending to an amazing weekend, so haunt on down to the Monsterama Convention! Rock out at Day 2 of the Candler Park Fall Fest with Webster; The Jugtime Ragband; Guru Fish; Kool Kat Blair Crimmins & the Hookers and more! Afropunk Fest Day 2 rocks out with D’Angelo & the Vanguard; Twin Shadow; Benjamin Booker; Suicidal Tendencies; Curtis Harding; Adia Victoria and more! And spend the day with intergalactic robots as they invade theatres across Atlanta at 12pm with a special “Signature Edition” screening of Brad Bird’s THE IRON GIANT (1999) [Hollywood Stadium 24 in Chamblee, Perimeter Pointe 10; AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 in Lawrenceville; AMC Avenue Forsyth 12 in Cumming; Avalon Stadium 12 in Alpharetta; AMC Barrett Commons 24 in Kennesaw; AMC Southlake 24 in Morrow; Regal McDonough Stadium 16; and Georgian Stadium in Newnan]! Folk it up with Slaid Cleaves at Eddie’s Attic! Rock out with the Foo Fighters at Centennial Olympic Park! Get groovy as Swami Gone Bananas gets down at Hottie Hawgs BBQ! And get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar!
Ongoing
The Atlanta Opera presents Giocomo’s “La boheme” at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, running through Oct. 11!
Chambers of Horror Haunted House terrifies with their adults-only gore-fest and blood-splattering through Nov. 1!
Netherworld Haunted House haunts every weekend through Nov. 1!
Blast-Off Burlesque geeks it up with a night of adults-only trivia at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, every Monday at 8:30pm!
Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Filling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the month!
The Star Bar delivers Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, every Tuesday!
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.