ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Hey all you Kool Kats and Kittens! It’s Geeks ‘n’ Glory this week as Dragon Con 2017 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 28

Surf on down to Vinyl for a night with Donavon Frankenreiter and Matt Grundy! Get rocked and space out with the Breathers, OCHI, Rail Gun and The Pleasure Point at 529! Spend the night with Sly Stallone and catch a screening of John G. Avildsen’s ROCKY (1976) at the Alpharetta Branch Library at 10:30am! GKids Presents Studio Ghibli Fest 2017 with a screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s CASTLE IN THE SKY (1989) at theatres across Atlanta at 7pm [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Regal Mall of Georgia 20 Plus Imax (Buford); Studio Movie Grill (Duluth) and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow)]! 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!” Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up at Blind Willie’s! 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 29

Landmark Midtown Art Cinema continues their Classics Series with a screening of Wolfgang Petersen’s DAS BOOT (1981) at 7pm! Or get down with The Breeze Kings as they dish out a rockin’ tribute to B. B. King at The Vista Room! Get some folksy soul with Julie Rhodes and Andrew Hammond at Eddie’s Attic! Or folk it up with The Good Graces and Wyatt Espalin at Smith’s Olde Bar! Stomp on down to Blind Willie’s for a night with Chickens and Pigs with Nandha! 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! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, August 30

Emory Cinematheque kicks off their Resist Fascism Series with a double feature of Joris Ivens documentaries with THE SPANISH EARTH (1937) and THE 400 MILLION (1938) at 7:30pm! Get retro rocked with Greta Van Fleet and Goodbye June at The Earl! GKids Presents Studio Ghibli Fest 2017 with a screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s CASTLE IN THE SKY (1989) at theatres across Atlanta at 7pm [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Regal Mall of Georgia 20 Plus Imax (Buford); Studio Movie Grill (Duluth) and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow)]! Get new-wavy and surf on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with Cruise Director, Brother Oliver and Cougar Sweat! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack dishes out a night of the blues with Frankie’s Blues Mission! Get jazzy at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Get the Chicago/West Coast blues with the Electromatics at Blind Willie’s! 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, August 31

Put on your best duds and get your pre-Dragon*Con 2017 fix in Goblin City at the Center for Puppetry Arts’s Labyrinth Masquerade Ball at 7pm! DragonCon Tiki-A-GoGo it up with Kool Kat Joshua Longino and The Disapyramids at Trader Vic’s! Or spend the night with Wallace Shawn at Horizon Theatre Company! It’s! Get groovy with Groove Centric at City Winery! Get down with the NuEnsemble Trio at the Red Light Café! Folk it up with Lilac Wine at Venkman’s! Get down and dirty with Sandra Hall & The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! 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, September 1

Get your uber geek on, starting today, as the 31st Annual premier sci-fi convention, Dragon*Con 2017, kicks off, running through Sept. 4! 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 the Carrie Fisher Dragon Con Memoriam, Kool Kat Talloolah Love and her bevy of bathing beauties’ Pin-Ups by the Pool Party and so many more sci-fi ‘n’ geeky shenanigans! Rev on down to The Star Bar for Atomic Boogie’s CD Release Party featuring Rockabilly Kitty Rose, The Sideburners and more! Rock out at Avondale Towne Cinema with Kool Kat Rod Hamdallah, Cult Wife and The Buzzards of Fuzz! Get down with Mike Farris at City Winery! House Rocker Johnson & The Shadows dish out the blues at Blind Willie’s! Funk it up Big Easy-style with the Wasted Potential Brass Band at Northside Tavern! 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 2

It’s day 2 of Dragon*Con 2017! So, sci-fi it up with a whole lotta retro goodies! You won’t want to miss the Dragon*Con Parade at 10 am; Ballyhoo Motion Pictures and Kool Kat Daniel Griffith’s MST3K TO THE MAX event, Lips Down on Dixie’s largest ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW event, and so much more! Make your way to the Westside for A Taste of Soul Food & Music Festival! Street Fighting Band rocks out and pays tribute to The Rolling Stones at MadLife Stage & Studios! Or get rocked with Roky Erickson and Death Valley Girls at Aisle 5! Spend the night with Chuck Mosley (Faith No More/Bad Brains) at the Red Light Café! The Endorphin Machine pays tribute to Prince at Venkman’s! The Diamond Dogs rock out and pay tribute to Bowie at Smith’s Olde Bar! Boogie on down to The Basement for Heyday – ‘80s Dance Party! Get funky and make your way to Terminal West for the James Brown Dance Party! Folk it up with Griffin House at Eddie’s Attic! Blues it up with Nick Moss at Blind Willie’s! Randy Chapman dishes out the blues at Northside Tavern! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, September 3

It’s day 3 of Dragon*Con 2017, so sci-fi it up and get geek-filled with a whole lotta shenanigans, including Kool Kat Talloolah Love’s Glamour Geek Review, The Art of the Tiki event featuring Kool Kat Derek Yaniger, Horror in Clay’s Jonathan Chaffin (see our Shop Around feature here), and more! Seventies Atlanta punks the Razor Boys dish out their 1978 LP Preview Party at Gaja Korean Bar! Shimmy on down to the Tabernacle for Dita Von Teese’s “The Art of the Teese” Burlesque Revue! Make your way to the Fox Theatre for their BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1991) Sing-A-Long at 2pm! Spend the night with Beausoleil Avec Michael Doucet at City Winery! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar!

Ongoing

Catch the Andy Warhol exhibit at the High Museum through Sept. 3! (LAST CHANCE!)

Geek it up and get to bowlin’ at The Comet Pub & Lanes’ Comet Cosplay, getting nerdy the first Monday of every month!

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!

Get your reggae fix with Rub-A-Dub gettin’ down at WildPitch Music Hall, every second Sunday of the month!

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.