ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew M
anaging Editor

Shake a tail feather and come see what’s shakin’ in ATLRetro This Week!

Monday, January 30

Catch a screening of Preston Sturges’ SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS (1941) at the Alpharetta Branch Library at 10:30am! 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 it up with Larry Griffith at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Tuesday, January 31

Landmark Midtown Art Cinema kills it with their Noir Film Classics Series with a screening of Joel and Ethan Coen’s BLOOD SIMPLE (1984) at 7pm! Get folksy at Atlanta Contemporary with an evening with folk artist Lonnie Holley “The Sandman” and Ben Sollee! Rock out with German heavy metal rocker Dirkschneider at the Variety Playhouse! Get jazzy with Pat Metheny at Atlanta Symphony Hall! Flamenco on down to the Red Light Café for a night with Cristian Puig, Julie Moon and more! Get the blues with Ross Pead & Friends at Front Page News (L5P)! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s every Tuesday! 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 down with J.T. Speed at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, February 1

Make your way to City Winery for a Film and Wine Pairing with Kool Kat Col. Bruce Hampton! Or geek on down to My Parents Basement and celebrate 25 years of Image Comics! Get really retro and catch a couple of “pre-code era” films with Emory Cinematheque’s screening of Alfred L. Werker’s BACHELOR’S AFFAIRS (1932) and Frank Tuttle’s THE BIG BROADCAST (1932) at 7:30pm as part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive Festival of Preservation Tour! Or catch a screening of Clint Eastwood’s THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY (1995) at Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) at 7:30pm! Swing on by the Graveyard Tavern for Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings! Get your dancin’ shoes on and catch the 30th Anniversary screening of Emile Ardolino’s DIRTY DANCING (1987) at theatres across Atlanta (2pm/7pm) [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville)]; Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); and Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan)]! Jazz it up at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! 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, February 2

Get your West Coast funk jazz fix with A Tribute to the Crusaders at Venkman’s! Rock out and folk it up at The Earl with The Preakness, Ben Trickey and Big Brutus! Or nitty gritty it up at 529 with Bigfoot, LUST, Action City Blackout and The Aggravated! Make your way to The Plaza Theater and catch screenings of Kunihiko Ikuhara’s newly restored SAILOR MOON R, THE MOVIE (1993) and Cosmo Feilding-Mellen’s 2015 documentary about Nicholas Sand and Tim Scully, the “unlikely duo at the heart of the 1960s American drug counter-culture,” THE SUNSHINE MAKERS! “Go behind the screen” with SCADShow’s aTVfest! Get your Woody Allen fix with Atlanta Jewish Film Festival’s 3oth Anniversary screening of his classic RADIO DAYS (1987) at the Tara Theatre at 7:45pm! Stomp on down to City Winery for a night with Bo Ramsey and Greg Brown! Get the folksy blues with Tom Rush at Eddie’s Attic! Funk on down to Terminal West for The James Brown Dance Party! Get the blues with the Cody Matlock Band at the Northside Tavern! It’s a hootenanny and a half at The Vista Room with Kool Kat Col. Bruce Hampton & the Madrid Express! Make your way to the Red Light Café for a night with Collins Drive and Alex and Todd! Bluegrass it up at the Crimson Moon Café for Mark Garrison’s Bluegrass Jam! Brother Hawk rocks out at Smith’s Olde Bar! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a night of rockin’ tunes with The Sundogs! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! 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, February 3

Get traumatized and HORROR-fied this weekend as the Days of the Dead Convention kills it at the Sheraton Atlanta hotel for three days of ghastly gore-filled events, running through Feb. 5! You won’t want to miss monstrous retro celebrity guests Tom Savini (SFX legend); PJ Soles (HALLOWEEN) Linda Blair (THE EXORCIST); Doug Bradley (HELLRAISER); Kool Kat Shane Morton a.k.a. ghost host with the most, Prof. Morte; Kool Kat James Bickert (DEAR GOD NO!/FRANKENSTEIN CREATED BIKERS); STRANGER THINGS cast; masked menace Kane Hodder of FRIDAY THE 13TH fame; the 48-Hour Horror Film Fest; a hell raisin’ Friday night party featuring Celebrity Scaryee-Okee, horror rockers Kool Kats The Casket Creatures and so much more! So, get your fill of the blood-bath that is, Days of the Dead!

Make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for the Atlanta opening of Raoul Peck’s I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO (2017), written by James Baldwin (See our Retro Review soon!) The Star Bar dishes out a rockin’ hootenanny with Blake Rainey & His Demons, Dang Dang Dang and Gas Hound! Geek it up with Dragon Con Night at Medieval Times at 7pm! Make your way to Venkman’s for a night of ‘60s and ‘70s rock and roll with The Rainmen! Get rocked folk-style with The Devil Makes Three and Lost Dog Street Band at the Variety Playhouse! Blues it up with Dr. Dixon at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Make your way to The Vista Room for a night with Ed Roland & the Sweet Tea Project! Make your way to the High Museum for their “First Friday” event featuring a screening of John Hughes’ FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF (1986); a performance by the Atlanta Funk Society; fortune telling; and so much more! Rock out at Venkman’s with Acoustic Beatles with Nick Niespodziani & Tim Smith, Escape Vehicle, and The Rainmen! 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, February 4

It’s Day 2 to get spooked at the Days of the Dead Convention at the Sheraton Atlanta! Get your blood curdling fill of monsters galore with the Son of Celluloid Show; a 7pm screening of John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN (1978) with a special introduction by PJ Soles; a midnight screening of Kool Kat James Bickert’s FRANKENSTEIN CREATED BIKERS; gore-ific panels and a terrifying end to the night with an ‘80s Slasher Prom that will have you rattlin’ your bones deep into the night!

Bebop on down to The Star Bar for Hollyfest IX, rockin’ out with Kool Kat Joshua Longino and The Disapyramids, The Cherry Bomb, Kool Kat Caroline & The Ramblers, Rodeo Twister, Kira Annalise, The Sideburners, Atomic Boogie, The Mystery Men?, Rockabilly Kitty Rose, Kool Kat Rev. Andy and The Southern Ska Syndicate, Bad Friend and so much more!  Departure pays tribute to Journey at The Earl Smith Strand Theatre! Make your way to Venkman’s for The Whiskey Gentry Unplugged: Storytelling Set! Eighties it up with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade at the Dawsonville Tavern! Boogie on down to Amsterdam Atlanta for Kool Kat VJ Anthony’s COFFIN CLASSICS: Goth Industrial Music Video Dance Party! Make your way to the Variety Playhouse for a night with Tinsley Ellis! Prog rock it up with Neal Morse at City Winery! Smith’s Olde Bar dishes out a night of rockin’ tributes with Nameless Nameless (Nirvana); Pinups (David Bowie); and Stone Tribute Pilots (Stone Temple Pilots)! Get funky with the Mike Veal Band at The Vista Room! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Spend the night with John Berry at Eddie’s Attic! Stomp down to the Red Light Café for a night with Ralph Roddenbery, Donna Hopkins and Steve “Big Daddy” McMurry! Get the rockin’ blues with Swap Raw Deal at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, February 5

It’s Day 3 and your last chance to experience the rockin’ blood and horror fest, the Days of the Dead Convention!  Today’s events include horrorific panels, including a TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE panel, so, come on and check out all the swell and retro horror goodness while you can! Get retro ‘n’ geeky at the Atlanta Comic Convention at the Atlanta Marriott Century Center! Or get really retro and help the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival celebrate 75 years of Ernst Lubitsch’s TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942) with an 11:10am screening at Lefont Sandy Springs! Spend the night with Upstate Rubdown at the Red Light Café! Bluegrass it up with the Edgar Loudermilk Band at City Winery! Big Band it up with Joe Gransden and the legendary Francine Reed at Eddie’s Attic! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar! And blues it up with Garrett Collins at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Ongoing

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! I

f 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.