by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor
Retro Atlanta is red-hot this week! Come see all the shakin’ shenanigans we’ve found for you! We’ve got all the ‘billy you could ever want; classic cinema on the big screen; rock in all varieties and of course a whole lotta’ down and dirty jazz ‘n’ blues! So get off that couch and come see what’s on the Retro menu!
Monday, June 6
All work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy, so get sinister at The Plaza Theater for their screening of Stanley Kubrick’s classic THE SHINING (1980), running through June 8! Jazz it up with Metro Quest at Avondale Towne Cinema! Make your way to the Red Light Café for Vinyl Night! Blues it up with Bill Sheffield at Blind Willie’s! 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! Skye Paige, “Queen of Slide Guitar” rocks out at the Little Vinyl Lounge! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam!
Tuesday, June 7
Doo wop on down to The Earl for a night with King Khan & The Shrines, Giorgio Murderer and the Midnight Larks! It’s a night of ‘70s glam punk at 529 with Giuda, DINOS BOYS and Antagonizers ATL! Get your psychobilly punk fix at the Masquerade with Tiger Army and The Bellfuries! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with their Downtown Tuesday Night Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! Get adventurous at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern with their screening of Steven Spielberg’s RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981), during their “Classic Films on the Big Screen” series at 7:30pm! Frankie’s Blues Mission delivers the blues at Blind Willie’s! Or blues it up with Mandi Strachota at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s every Tuesday! And as always, The Entertainment Crackers get bluesy with their folksy Americana at the Northside Tavern!
Wednesday, June 8
Who you gonna call? You won’t want to miss Ivan Reitman’s classic, GHOSTBUSTERS (1984), screening in theatres across the Atlanta at 2 pm and 7pm [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee), Perimeter Pointe 10; Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); AMC Northpoint Mall 12 (Alpharetta); Regal Atlantic Station 18; AMC Parkway Pointe 15; AMC Phipps Plaza 14; AMC Avenue Forsyth 12 (Cumming); and Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville)]! Or get adventurous at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern with their second screening of Steven Spielberg’s RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981), during their “Classic Films on the Big Screen” series at 7:30pm! Get you classic rock fix at Lakewood Amphitheatre with Journey and The Doobie Brothers! Make your way to the Decatur Library for their screening of Joe Pytka’s SPACE JAM (1996) at 1:30pm! Blind Willie’s gets down with a night of triple pianos with Tigner, Page and Wauchope! Jazz it up with The Gordon Vernick Quartet at the Red Light Café! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! It’s Chicken Picken’ Wednesday at Venkman’s, so come on out for a night with the Rumpke Mountain Boys! The Star Bar gets to twangin’ with their Cowboy Karaoke event, featuring live-band old-time country and western tunes with Dry Gulch! Or 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, June 9
Honkytonk on down to the Clermont Lounge every other Thursday for a night with Kool Kat Spike Fullerton and Ghost Riders Car Club! Folk it up with The Brookses and The old Mill Road Band at the Red Light Café! Rock on down to The Drunken Unicorn for a night with The Casket Girls and Stardeath & White Dwarfs! Take a trip to Tromaville as the Horizon Theatre Co. presents “The Toxic Avenger” in Piedmont Park, running through June 12 (see our Kool Kat interview with Nick Arapoglou here)! Michael Chesin of the Elegant Bachelors delivers “Paul McCartney vs. Paul Simon” at Venkman’s! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so surf on down to Trader Vic’s for a helluva beach party with Kool Kat Joshua Longino and The Disapyramids! Get Rhythm & Soul with the David Ellington Trio in the Little Vinyl Lounge at The Star Bar! Catch “Disaster Aboard the Orlando,” a sci-fi horror comedy playing at 7 Stages through June 12! Blues it up with George Hughley at Blind Willie’s! 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! The Cody Matlock Band delivers a night of blues at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! And as always, boogie down at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.
Friday, June 10
The Star Bar rocks out with The Dwarves, The Queers, Teenage Rehab and The Sawed Offs! You’re gonna need a bigger boat at the Earl Smith Strand Theatre as they screen Steven Spielberg’s summer classic, JAWS (1975) at 8pm! Get geeky and game it up during the Southern Fried Gameroom Expo, featuring 250+ arcade and pinball games and more, running through June 12! Catch Kool Kat Andy Ditzler and Film Love Atlanta’s “Let’s Work Together” event at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center at 7:30pm! Smithsonian and Map of the Moon rock out at The Earl! The Fox Theatre’s Coca-Cola Summer Film Festival kicks off with John Hughes’ FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF (1986) at 7:30pm, and runs through August 27! Funk it up with The Mar-Tans at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Celebrate Elvis at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center with “Heart of a King” at 8pm! Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade 80s it up at Wild Wing Café in Alpharetta! Venkman’s delivers acoustic Beatles with Nick from Yacht Rock Revue! Damon Fowler gets the blues at Blind Willie’s! Rock out under the dinosaurs at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX event with Lethal Rhythm! 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, June 11
Today kicks off The State of Black Science Fiction Con, running through June 12, and promising the most comprehensive presentation of black speculative fiction, cosplay, Afrofuturism, Steamfunk and more (Keep your eyes peeled for our Kool Kat interview with writer and Con co-founder Ojetade Balogun)! Make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for their Studio Ghibli series, featuring a screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s CASTLE IN THE SKY (1989) at 1pm! It’s movie night at Turner Field, so catch a game and a screening of John Hughes’ FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF (1986)! Shimmy on down to the 19th annual East Point Possums Show, benefiting Lost and Found Youth, featuring 25 performances including Blast-Off Burlesque! Jazz it up with The Hot Club of Atlanta at Venkman’s, followed by the Atlanta Funk Society! Rock out at The Star Bar with Turnstile and The Accidents! The Earl Smith Strand Theatre screens Randal Kleiser’s GREASE (1978)! Rev it up with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt & the Psycho-Devilles at the Sportsline Bar! Swing on by Chastain Park for a night with Harry Connick, Jr.! Make your way to Stone Mountain Park for the 5th Annual Atlanta Street Food & Music Festival! Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade 80s it up at Craze Tavern! Make your way to Kavarna for a night with The Skylarks! Get jazzy with Elgin Wells at the Red Clay Theatre! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues delivers a night of rockin’ blues with Sal’s Soulful Sinners! Get bluesy with Tullamore Road at the Northside Tavern! Blues it up with Sandra Hall & The Shadows 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, June 12
Make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for their Studio Ghibli series, featuring a screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s CASTLE IN THE SKY (1989) at 1pm! It’s your last chance to catch Ivan Reitman’s classic, GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) on the big screen, screening in theatres across the Atlanta at 2 pm and 7pm [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee), Perimeter Pointe 10; Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); AMC Northpoint Mall 12 (Alpharetta); Regal Atlantic Station 18; AMC Parkway Pointe 15; AMC Phipps Plaza 14; AMC Avenue Forsyth 12 (Cumming); and Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville)]! Jazz it up brunch style with The David Ellington Jazz Trio at Venkman’s! Lola gets down and dirty at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint! And get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar!
Ongoing
MacGillivey Freeman’s 2013 documentary, NATIONAL PARK ADVENTURE, commemorating the U.S. National Park Service’s 100th anniversary at the Fernbank Museum’s IMAX screens through June 16!
The Fox Theatre’s Coca-Cola Summer Film Festival runs through August 27!
The Michael C. Carlos Museum presents their “Doorway to an Enlightened World” exhibit, running through Nov. 27!
Blast-Off Burlesque geeks it up with a night of adults-only trivia at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, every Monday at 8:30pm! (On hiatus as of May 16 until further notice)
Union EAV rocks out with their Punk Rock Karaoke ATL, and every last Tuesday of the month!
Geek it up at My Parents’ Basement with their weekly Tuesday night Nerd Trivia at 8pm!
Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Filling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the 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.