ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

ATLRetro is the Kat’s meow this ho-ho holiday season! If you’re lookin’ for a thrill and the weather’s got you down, get off that couch, put on your dancin’ shoes and live la vida Retro!

Monday, December 4

Rock out with The Mike Dillon Band at Aisle 5! Get poetic and catch a screening of Peter Weir’s DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989) at the Alpharetta Branch Library at 10:30am! Get folksy with Fairshake & Friends at the Red Light Café! Get old-timey at Avondale Towne Cinema with their Folk Roots event! Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 17-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam!

Tuesday, December 5

Spend the night with Sailor and Lula at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema’s screening of David Lynch’s WILD AT HEART (1990) during their “A Dish Best Served Cold” Classics Series at 7pm! Hilarity ensues with the Griswolds during Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s screening of Jeremiah Chechik’s holiday classic, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION (1989) as part of their Retro Cinema series at 7:30pm! Make your way to City Winery for a night with David Crosby & Friends! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down with the Poverty Level Band! Rock out with Seether at the Tabernacle! Catch Rick Springfield and Richard Marx’ Acoustic Tour at Atlanta Symphony Hall! Get your Americana fix with The Last Tycoon, Boo Reefa, Julian Morena and more at 529! 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 DJ Quasi Mandisco’s Little 5 Points 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, December 6

Videodrome New-Waves it up and presents a matinee screening of Jonathan Demme’s STOP MAKING SENSE (1984) at 529 at 4pm! Two-time Kool Kat Jeffrey Butzer and his Trio present A Charlie Brown Christmas at MadLife Stage & Studios in Woodstock! Hilarity ensues with the Griswolds during Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s encore screening of Jeremiah Chechik’s holiday classic, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION (1989) as part of their Retro Cinema series at 7:30pm! Get some soul with Ronnie Spector at City Winery! Get the rockin’ blues with The Cazanovas at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Get mischievous at The Star Bar with Dinos Boys, Poison Boys and Fixed Faces, or head downstairs to the Little Vinyl Lounge for a night with Stevie Tombstone and Slim Chance! Swing on by Atlanta Symphony Hall for a night with The Brian Setzer Orchestra and The Texas Gentlemen! Or ragtime it up and get countrified with Pokey LaFarge and The Easy Leaves at Terminal West! Funk it up with the Mike Veal Band at Tin Roof Cantina! Catch a screening of Jon Favreau’s ELF (2003) at Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) at 7:15pm! Get the blues with Ike Stubblefield at Avondale Towne Cinema! Get jazzy at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! 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 7

Naughty or nice? Doesn’t matter kiddies, just make your way to The Plaza Theater for Cineprov’s 10th Annual Ruining Childhood Memories Christmas Show, featuring hilarity with riffing and screenings of Larry Roemer’s 1964 animated television special, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER and the HE-MAN AND SHE-RA: A CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (1985)! Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt  revs it up acoustic-style at Porterdale Bar & Grille! Funk it up as Hot Ice brings you their James Brown vs. Fela Kuti vs. Roy Ayers event at City Winery! Cody Matlock & the Mothership get down at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Bluegrass it up with Tyler Childers and Blank Range at The Earl! Death metal it up with Cannibal Corpse at the Masquerade! Get your ‘70s power pop fix with Kool Kat Scott Walker with The Head at Smith’s Olde Bar! Rock out with Darling Machine at The Star Bar! Power funk on down to Terminal West for a night of rockin’ soul with TURKUAZ and The Suffers! Jazz it up with Mike Phillips at Suite Food Lounge! It’s Mai Tai Thursday at Trader Vic’s so hula on down for some bluesy tunes with the Mike Lowery Band and a couple of cocktails! 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, December 8

Kamasi Washington gets some soul and jazzes it up with Moonchild at the Variety Playhouse! The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema kinks it up and hosts the Atlanta release of Dome Karukoski’s TOM OF FINLAND (2017)! Cross the pond to Venkman’s for their Beatles, Burgers and Beer event! Start new holiday traditions and experience the Atlanta Ballet’s NUTCRACKER at the Fox Theatre, through Dec. 28! Pop on over to the Red Light Café for the International Pop Overthrow (IPO) Day I, featuring Leisure McCorkle, The Good Graces, Casper & The Cookies, Sex Clark Five, The Shut-Ups and Kenny Howes & The Wow! The Alliance Theatre dishes out a holiday classic and presents the ghastly A CHRISTMAS CAROL at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, through Dec. 24! Rock out with The Barbaric Gentlemen and The Billy Jacks at Avondale Towne Cinema! Goth on down to Mary’s for their Baddest Bitch: Siouxie Sioux tribute! Blues it up with Heather Luttrell at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Rock out with The Dream Syndicate and Elephant Stone at The Earl! Fernbank After Dark gets ‘20s/’30s jazzy with The Hobohemians! Rock out at the Masquerade with The F@cking Pantera Cover Band! Spend the night with Robin Bullock and Steve Baughman at the Red Clay Theatre! Get down with The Sundogs and The Haraway Brothers at Smith’s Olde Bar! Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra gets jazzy holiday-style at Atlanta Symphony Hall! Get the Delta blues with BJ Wilbanks, Cody Marlowe and JR Rund at Vinyl! OnStage Atlanta performs A CHRISTMAS STORY, through Dec. 23!  Bill Sheffield gets the blues at Northside Tavern! Time-Warp it up 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 9

Rock out for a cause a The Star Bar’s 16th Annual Toys For Tots Celebration featuring Kool Kat Spike Fullerton’s Ghost Riders Car Club, Kool Kat Aileen Loy and Til Someone Loses an Eye, Bigfoot, Dry Gulch, BSOL, AM Gold, The Scragglers, Front Porch Session Players, JJ & The Hustlers and more! Join the hordes of horned and cloven miscreants and creatures during the Wreck the Halls L5P Krampus Krawl at 8pm, with the ever mischievous Black Sheep Ensemble! Yacht Rock Revue delivers their Holiday Show at Venkman’s! The Plaza Theater holidays it up with screenings of Bob Clark’s A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983) and Frank Capra’s IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946), through Dec. 10! Pop on over to the Red Light Café for the International Pop Overthrow (IPO) Day 2, featuring Tony Low, Paisley Garden, Netherglades, Ambulette, The Young and the Elder, and The Soogs!  Avondale Towne Cinema dishes out a rockin’ holiday special with The Rainmen! Get the rockin’ blues with The Cazanovas for a second night at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Skank on down to The Highlander for a night with the Taj Motel Trio, the Burrito Bandits and Swingset! Folk it up with Robert Earl Keen’s “Merry Christmas from the Fam-O-Lee” at the Variety Playhouse! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend the night with Lola! Support our local artists and make your way to Little Tree Art Studios, My Parents’ Basement and more in Avondale Estates for a Jingle Mingle Holiday Art Market from 10am – 6pm! Spend the holidays with Jim Henson as the Center for Puppetry Arts screens his holiday classic, EMMET OTTER’S JUG-BAND CHRISTMAS (1977) at 6pm! Boogie down ‘80s-style with Kool Kat VJ Anthony during his 80s New Wave Music Video Dance Party: INXS Edition at Amsterdam Atlanta! The Wet Jeans get down at the Tin Roof Cantina! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, December 10

TCM Big Screen Classics presents a 50th Anniversary screening of Stanley Kramer’s classic, GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER (1967) at theatres across Atlanta at 2pm/7pm [AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); and AMC Avenue Forsyth (Cumming)]! Spend the night with Rickie Lee Jones at City Winery! Jam on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues for a night with Mark Michelson! It’s a night of rockin’ folk at The Earl with The Artisanals, Neighbor Lady and Drew Beskin (The District Attorneys)! Get funky with Moontower at Tin Roof Cantina! Jingle on down to Venkman’s as David Ellington jazzes it up with his Charlie Brown Christmas! Make your way to Yaarab Shriners for the Indie Craft Experience Holiday Market, from 11am – 6pm! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar with Eddie Tigner!

Ongoing

Aurora Theatre – Lawrenceville presents A CHRISTMAS CAROL, bah humbugging through Dec. 23!

OnStage Atlanta performs A CHRISTMAS STORY, through Dec. 23!

The Alliance Theatre dishes out a holiday classic and presents A CHRISTMAS CAROL at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, through Dec. 24!

The Atlanta Ballet presents the NUTCRACKER at the Fox Theatre, through Dec. 28!

Center for Puppetry Arts presents your favorite traditional seasonal reindeer tale, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, jinglin’ through Dec. 31!

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.