ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Hey all you Kool Kats and Kittens! It’s Geeks ‘n’ Glory this week as Dragon Con 2016 invades our city! We’ve got all the sci-fi geekery your hearts could desire! And you won’t want to miss all the blues, punk and rock ‘n’ roll mischief! So, get out and get Retro!

Monday, August 29

Shake off the Monday blues with Blast-Off Burlesque’s Monday Night Games at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club! Catch a screening of Terence Young’s WAIT UNTIL DARK (1967) at the Alpharetta Branch Library at 10:30am! Blues it up with Barrelhouse Bob Page 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! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a side of Dry White Toast and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ!

Tuesday, August 30

The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema’s Cinema Classics Gangster Series goes out with a bang with a screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s THE GODFATHER PART II (1974) at 7pm! Geek it up at the Joystick Gamebar with their Cosplayground and P33P Show – Super Heroes & Villains Pre-DragonCon Blow Out event! Hang out with “The Dude” at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern with their screening of The Coen Brothers’ THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998) during their “Classic Films on the Big Screen” series at 7:30pm! Geek it up at Diesel Filling Station with their Middle Earth Trivia/Nerd-Core Trivia! Rock out with Kevn Kinney and Friends at City Winery! Get the blues with Geoff Achison at the Red Light Café! It’s a night of rockin’ blues with Frankie’s Blues Mission at Blind Willie’s! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with their Downtown Tuesday Night Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! Or get groovy with Kool Kat Rod Hamdallah in the Little Vinyl Lounge! 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, August 31

Shake a tail feather and Burly-Q it up with the Hysteria Machines & the Chameleon Queen during the 4th Annual Much Ado About Nerddom: A Geeky Variety Show at the Shakespeare Tavern! Catch a screening of Mike Hodges’ FLASH GORDON (1980) at The Plaza Theater!  Get a second chance to hang out with “The Dude” at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern with their screening of The Coen Brothers’ THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998) during their “Classic Films on the Big Screen” series at 7:30pm! Or catch a screening of Tim Burton’s BATMAN (1989) during Emory Cinematheque’s Comics & Graphic Novels Series at 7:30pm! TCM Big Screen Classics presents a 60th Anniversary screening of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s THE KING AND I (1956) at theatres across the Atlanta area at 2 pm and 7pm [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee), Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); and Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan)]! Jazz it up at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Get the blues with Frankie’s Blues Mission at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! Spend the night with Bob Log III and the Subsonics at The Star Bar! 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! Get to the root of it all and stomp on down to Blind Willie’s for a night with Joe McGuinness! 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, September 1

Put on your best duds and kick off Dragon*Con 2016 rockin’ out goblin-style at the Center for Puppetry Arts’s Labyrinth Masquerade Ball at 7pm! Kool Kat Joshua Longino and The Disapyramids tiki it up at Trader Vic’s and promise to rock your geeky DragonCon socks off! Or go Back to DragonCon II and party it up with MarksterCon at Harlem Nights Ultra Lounge ATL! Rock out with Kool Kat Ray Dafrico at The Earl at his solo CD release show, with Anna Kramer & The Lost Cause and The Wild Injuns (Dr. Feelgood cover band)! Hey all you mischievous miscreants! Get your tail over to The Highlander for their Rock N Roll Hall of Hell, featuring local artists’ tributes to departed musical legends! Or make your way to the Clermont Lounge for a night with Kool Kat Phoebe Cates and Attractive Eighties Women, Lust and The Vaginas! Cuddle up with Joe Dante’s GREMLINS (1984) at SCADShow’s 8pm screening! AC/DC invade Philips Arena! Steven Tyler goes “Out on a Limb” at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center! Jazz it up with Elan Trotman at Suite Food Lounge! Stomp on down to the Red Light Café for a night with Donna Hopkins and Daniel Hutchens! Make your way to City Winery for The Stranger – A Tribute to Billy Joel! Michael Chesin of the Elegant Bachelors delivers his Paul McCartney vs. Paul Simon show at 6:30pm at Venkman’s, followed by a free screening of Tim Burton’s BATMAN (1989) at 9pm! Make your way to The Star Bar for a night with the High Riders (record release), Kenny Howes & The Wow! and more! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Boogie down with Beverly “Guitar” Watkins at Blind Willie’s! The Cody Matlock Band delivers a night of blues at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta! 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! 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, September 2

Get your uber geek on, starting today, as the 30th Annual premier sci-fi convention, Dragon*Con 2016, kicks off, running through Sept. 5! It’ll be an event chock full of rockin’ retro shenanigans, including a comic/pop artist alley, sci-fi classics, alternative history, comics, pop-art, fantasy, horror, paranormal, sci-fi literature, Star Wars, Tolkien, Star Trek, and more! Tonight, you won’t want to miss Harry Strange Radio Drama Live, Kool Kat Talloolah Love and her bevy of bathing beauties’ Pin-Ups by the Pool Party; Suits, Sinatra & Star Wars Cocktail Party and so many more sci-fi ‘n’ geeky shenanigans! Or make your way to The Earl for a rockin’ ruckus with Sloppy Seconds, Five O’ Clock Devil, Dusty Booze & The Baby Haters and Rotten Stitches! Blues it up with The Dr. Love Blues Revue featuring Pete Peterson and Claudette King at Stagga Lee’s Goodtime Emporium! Rock out with Timmy James & The Blue Flames and The Accidents at The Star Bar! Take a trip to the cosmos with Kool Kat Col. Bruce Hampton & The Madrid Express at City Winery! Catch a screening of Robert Zemeckis’ FORREST GUMP (1994) at the Earl Smith Strand Theatre! Make your way to Blind Willie’s for a night with House Rocker Johnson & The Shadows! 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, September 3

It’s day 2 of Dragon*Con 2016! So, sci-fi it up with a whole lotta retro goodies! You won’t want to miss the Dragon*Con Parade at 10 am; Lips Down on Dixie’s largest ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW event, and so much more! Boogie on down to Club Famous for Kool Kat VJ Anthony’s CONfusion: 80s New Wave Music Video Dance Party! Rock out with Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats at Terminal West! The Moonlighters Jazz Band dish out a night of ‘30s-‘50s jazz at the Red Light Café! Make your way to The Earl for a night with Emily Palmer & Kool Kat Jeffrey Butzer (performing the songs of Leonard Cohen), Book Club (performing the songs of Neil Young) and Waiting for UFOs! Make your way to The Star Bar for a night with The Gartrells, The Midnight Larks, Bad Spell, Cullen Curtis, Catlin Winkler and more! Make your way to Smith’s Olde Bar as Rolling Thunder pays tribute to Bob Dylan, along with Russ Still & The Moonshiners! Catch a screening of Robert Zemeckis’ FORREST GUMP (1994) at the Earl Smith Strand Theatre! Sandra Hall & The Shadows get down 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, September 4

It’s day 3 of Dragon*Con 2016, so sci-fi it up and get geek-filled with a whole lotta shenanigans, including Kool Kat Talloolah Love’s Glamour Geek Review; Kool Kat Daniel Griffith/Ballyhoo Motion Pictures’ event, MST3K Night: Jack Perkins & The Vaults of Deep 13, and so much more! Get your 80s adventure fix with Wolfgang Peterson’s THE NEVERENDING STORY (1984), screening at theatres across Atlanta at 2pm/7pm [Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Regal Atlantic Station 18; AMC Parkway Pointe 15; Perimeter Pointe 10; AMC Phipps Plaza 14; Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Avenue Forsyth 12 (Cumming); and AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw)]! Get your ‘90s alt-rock fix with the Goo Goo Dolls at Chastain Park! Get some soul with Davin McCoy & The Quiet Opera at Eddie’s Attic! And get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar!

Ongoing

The Michael C. Carlos Museum presents their “Doorway to an Enlightened World” exhibit, running through Nov. 27!

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.