ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Hey all you retro-lovin’ kiddies! It’s that time of year again! The big jolly fella may be spying to see if you’re naughty or nice, so show ‘em how good (or bad, we don’t mind!) you are by gettin’ out and seeing what Retro Atlanta has in store for you!  It’s a week of holiday cheer, retro-style, so whether you’re hankerin’ for a good classic flick or are needing to get your retro rockin’ fix, come see what we’ve found just for you!

Monday, December 19

Kool Kat Jeffrey Butzer and T. Thomas Mahoney dish out their annual Charlie Brown Christmas shindig at The Earl Smith Strand Theatre with Kool Kat Chad Shivers & The Knights performing The Beach Boys’ and The Ventures’ Christmas albums! Get intergalactic with Space Wizard, Gnomonaut, Crown of Sorrow and Kilberth at 529! Merry it up at the Fox Theatre’s Mighty Mo & More! annual holiday organ concert and sing-along featuring John Pasquin’s THE SANTA CLAUSE (1994) at 7:30pm! Make your way to Eddie’s Attic for a night with Ed Roland! Charlie Brown it up as David Ellington performs “A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS” at Venkman’s! Make your way to the Alpharetta Branch Library for a screening of Preston Sturges’ THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN’S CREEK (1944) at 10:30am! Get bewitched holiday-style at Battle & Brew for two nights with their Hogwarts Christmas Feast! Catch a screening of Chris Columbus’ HOME ALONE (1990) at Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) at 7pm! Get bluesy with Matthew Pendrick 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 night with The Pork Bellies!

Tuesday, December 20

Rock out with John Kadlecik at the Red Light Café! Get your holiday fix at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s screening of Frank Capra’s IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) at 7:30pm! Blind Willie’s gets down with the Bob Page! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with their Downtown Tuesday Night Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! Make your way to Eddie’s Attic for a night two of Ed Roland! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, December 21

Charlie Brown it up as David Ellington performs “A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS” at Venkman’s! Get down and dirty with Order of the Owl, The Dirty Magazines, Spore Lord and Day Old Man at The Earl! The Electromatics dish out a night of Chicago and West Coast blues at Blind Willie’s! Get some soul with The Hollidays at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get your holiday fix at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s encore screening of Frank Capra’s IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) at 7:30pm! Swing on by the Red Clay Theatre for Joe Gransden’s Big Band Holiday Show featuring Laura Coyle! Jazz it up at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Make your way to Eddie’s Attic for a night three of Ed Roland!Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! The Star Bar gets down with their Okie Dokie Karaoke, every Wednesday at 9pm! 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, December 22

Rock out with Kool Kat Adam McIntyre with The Pinx, Guantanamo Baywatch, Nate & The Nightmares and Mammabear at The Star Bar! Get your Americana fix with The Brookses at the Red Light Café! Get down with David Shaw of The Revivalists at the Variety Playhouse! Get your ‘70s rockin’ fix with the Barreracudas, Dinos Boys and Gunpowder Gray at The Earl! Make your way to The Vista Room for a night with Kool Kat Col. Bruce Hampton! Swing on by Venkman’s for the Big Band Holiday Show featuring the Atlanta Latin Jazz Orchestra! The Earl Smith Strand Theatre presents a merry holiday marathon with screenings of Frank Capra’s classic, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) from noon to 9pm! Get down and dirty with Beverly “Guitar” Watkins at Blind Willie’s! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a night of island tunes and tasty tiki cocktails! 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! 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, December 23

Have a rockin’ holiday at The Star Bar with The Locksmyth, Till Someone Loses an Eye (Kool Kat Aileen Loy), Rob Leines and Cinch! Or get old-timey with Reverend Hylton’s Xmas EVE EVE shindig in the Little Vinyl Lounge featuring Kool Kat Caleb Warren, Chilly Winds, Ethan Fogus, Jason Waller and Rachel Petit! Spend the night with the Griswolds at Venkman’s with a screening of Jeremiah Chechik’s NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION (1989) at 6:30pm, followed by a night with Yacht Rock Revue with special guest Peter Stroud! Get your Stones fix at The Earl Smith Strand Theatre with The Street Fighting Band featuring Kool Kat Rich Desantis and Stephen Skipper! Eighties it up one final time at Club Famous’ 80s New Wave Video Dance Party with Kool Kat VJ Anthony! Get brassy with the Wasted Potential Brass Band’s Wasted Christmas Party at the Northside Tavern! Have a Sex, Drugs & Bluegrass Holiday at the Red Light Café with Flight of Sorrows, Uncle Daddy & The Kissin’ Cousins, Happy Lonesome, Jammin’ Jupiter & The Space Age Rat Pak and more! It’s a rockin’ night of tributes at the Variety Playhouse with Rumours: A Fleetwood Mac Tribute and The Dirty Doors! Swing on by the Eddie’s Attic for Joe Gransden’s Big Band Holiday Show featuring Laura Coyle! Get down with Banks & Shane at the Red Clay Theatre! Make your way to City Winery for Natural Wonder: The Ultimate Stevie Wonder Tribute! Pay tribute to Simon and Garfunkel at Avondale Towne Cinema with Absynthe Makes the Art Garfunkel! Get the blues with George Hughley & The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! Blues it up with Willy Jackson at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! 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, December 24

Xmas Eve it up with Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck at the Northside Tavern! Catch a screening of Frank Capra’s holiday classic, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) at theatres across Atlanta at 12pm/7pm [Regal Atlantic Station 18; Regal Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); and Regal Hollywood Stadium 24 – (Chamblee); Perimeter Pointe 10; UA Tara Theatre; Regal Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); and Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough)]! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, December 25

We hope you have a rockin’ retro Christmas this year! For those of you wondering, ATLRetro is alive and hopping, so come on out and see what the jolly old fella has up his big red sleeve! Rock out with Brother Hawk, A Drug Called Tradition and Sash the Bash at The Earl! Get the blues with 10,000 Pontiacs at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar!

Ongoing

Scrooge it up at the Alliance Theatre’s 27th season of “A CHRISTMAS CAROL” running through Dec. 24! (LAST CHANCE!)

Make a trek to the Island of Misfit Toys a.k.a. the Center for Puppetry Arts as they present Jon Ludwig’s adaptation of RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, directed by Tim Sweeney, running through Dec. 31!

Dad’s Garage’s Big Boozy Nerdy Game Night brings out the kid in you, every first Monday of the month at 7pm!

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.