ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

April showers bring swell ATLRetro shenanigans! Get hep to the jive and come see what we’ve dug up for you!

Monday, April 16

Kink it up with Dave Davies at City Winery! The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema continues their annual Studio Ghibli Series with screenings of Hayao Miyazaki’s NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND (1984) and THE WIND RISES (2013)! Get yacht rocky with Christopher Cross at the Variety Playhouse! Get to the root of it all with Dan Layus at Eddie’s Attic! Stephen Jay & Jim West, of Weird Al Yankovic’s band brings The Parallel Universe Tour to the Red Light Café! Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up at Blind Willie’s! 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! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a night with Larry Griffith!

Tuesday, April 17

The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema continues their new Classics Series with a screening of Ingmar Bergman’s WILD STRAWBERRIES (1957) at 7pm! Catch some waves and spend the night with guitar legend Dick Dale and The Buzzards of Fuzz at The Earl (check out our interview with the legend here)! Head on down to Margaritaville for a night with Jimmy Buffet & The Coral Reefer Band at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre! The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema continues their annual Studio Ghibli Series with screenings of Hayao Miyazaki’s CASTLE IN THE SKY (1989) and SPIRITED AWAY (2005)! Groove on down to City Winery for a night of swamp folk with the Subdudes and Vance Gilbert! Get your jazzy blues fix with Davina & The Vagabonds at Eddie’s Attic! Get smashing and make your way to the Fox Theatre as they present Broadway’s SOMETHING ROTTEN!, running through April 22! Get electro with Covenant at The Drunken Unicorn! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s every Tuesday! JT Speed gets down at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! 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! Blind Willie’s dishes out a night of rockin’ blues with the Tyler Neal Band! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, April 18

Funk it up with Mother’s Finest at Eddie’s Attic! Make your way to The Star Bar for a night with Vito Romeo and Joyride! Get nitty gritty with the Old ‘97s and Jaime Wyatt at Terminal West! It’s a night of ‘70s euro punk with GG King and Ty Segall & the Freedom Band at the Variety Playhouse! Folk it up with Kevin Morby and Hand Habits at The Earl! Grab your favorite monster and make your way to Emory’s Frankenstein Speaker Series: Dr. Friedman at 7pm! Groove on down to City Winery for a night of swamp folk with the Subdudes and Vance Gilbert! Travel through time and catch a screening of Robert Zemeckis’ BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) during Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s Flashback Cinema series at 2:30pm/7:30pm! The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema continues their annual Studio Ghibli Series with screenings of Hayao Miyazaki’s HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE (2005) and PRINCESS MONONOKE (1997)! Rock on down to Avondale Towne Cinema for a night with Jackwagon, Semicircle and Poly Action! Art Hollidays gets down at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Funk it up with the Mike Veal Band at Tin Roof Cantina! Get jazzy at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) presents a screening of Arthur Penn’s classic BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967) at 7:15pm! The Electromatics dish out a night of Chicago/West Coast blues at Blind Willie’s! Get the rockin’ blues with The Cazanovas at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up a night of acoustic 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, April 19

Rock out at The Star Bar with Kool Kat Aileen Loy and Till Someone Loses an Eye, Timmy James & The Blue Flames and The Crush! Videodrome and The Plaza Theater get bizarre with their Plazadrome Cult Film Series screening of Craig Denney’s THE ASTROLOGER (1975) at 10pm! Or vampire it up with the 42nd Annual Atlanta Film Festival’s screening of Taika Waititi/Jemaine Clement’s horror comedy WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (2014) at The Plaza Theatre at 11:59pm! Get rootsy with Ryan Bingham at City Winery! Mother’s Finest dishes out a funky encore at Eddie’s Attic! Spend the night with Tim Easton and Tyler Jarvis at the Red Clay Theatre! Get saucy as Savannah Sweet Tease presents Take It All Off Broadway burly-Q event at the Red Light Café with special guest Kool Kat Ursula Undress! Jazz it up with U-Nam featuring Jeff Murrell at Suite Food Lounge! The Variety Playhouse kicks off the Sweetwater 420 Fest with the Official Pre-Party featuring The String Cheese Incident! Get rocked with The Queers, Squadron and Magoo’s Heros at the Clermont Lounge! The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema continues their annual Studio Ghibli Series with screenings of Hayao Miyazaki’s MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (1988) and KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE (1989)! It’s Mai Tai Thursday at Trader Vic’s so hula on down for a night of rockin’ island tunes and killer island cocktails! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Stomp on down to Blind Willie’s for a night with Heather Luttrell! 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, April 20

New-Wave it up with Wreckless Eric and Gentleman Jesse at 529! It’s Prohibition pandemonium at Venkman’s with Kool Kat Blair Crimmins & The Hookers! Rev on down to The Star Bar for a night with Rex Romweber, Mark “Porkchop” Holder & MPH and Bad Friend! Honkytonk on down to Sweetwater Bar & Grill in Duluth for a night with The Sideburners, Kitty Rose & The Rattlers and Skye Paige! Eighties it up with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch with Denim Arcade at the Wild Wing Café in Alpharetta! Funk on down to Aisle 5 for a night with Voodoo Visionary, The Groove Orient and PK Kid! Rock out during this year’s 3-day Sweetwater 420 Fest with a whole lotta rock harkening back to the 20th century, running through April 22! Get folksy with Bruce Cockburn at City Winery! Surf on down to The Earl for a night with Surfer Blood and Winter! Get countrified with Charlie Robison at Eddie’s Attic! Rock out with American Dischord, Radio Cult, Forsaken Profits and The Breaks at The Highlander! Get your ‘80s fix with Bon Jovi at Philips Arena! Folk rock it up with Glen Phillips and Hoot & Holler at the Red Clay Theatre! Get jazzy with Rene Marie at the Rialto Center for the Arts! Rock out with Mo Lowda & The Humble at Smith’s Olde Bar! Get folksy with The Arcadian Wild, Steel City Jug Slammers and Cool Hand Hayes at the Red Light Café! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! George Hughley & The Shadows get the rockin’ blues at Blind Willie’s! Get down with Dani Mac & Co at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! 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, April 21

Hey kiddies! It’s Record Store Day, so dust off those old records and come see what’s shakin’ at vinyl shops across Atlanta! Make your way to Criminal Records as they celebrate Record Store Day with performances by Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel, Curtis Harding, the Midnight Larks and more! Or head over to Mojo Vinyl in Roswell as they celebrate with a live performance by Seven Sons and more! Fantasyland Records brings you a day full of limited editions, special editions and more! Shake it up with DIXIES & DIVAS at Avondale Towne Cinema, featuring Kool Kat Caroline & The Ramblers, Kool Kat Amy Pike with The Bonaventure Quartet, Kitty Rose & The Rattlers and Kayla Taylor Jazz! Get mischievous and rock on down to The Star Bar for a night with ELZIG, Bigfoot, B.S.O.L and DJ Howenstein! Shimmy on down to the Red Light Café for Sadie Hawkins’ Last Pasties Standing: Animal Style event! Garage rock it up with The Coathangers and Minus the Bear at Center Stage! Rockabilly it up with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt & The Psycho-DeVilles at Dixie Tavern in Marietta! Get down with Mr. Rogers during the 42nd Annual Atlanta Film Festival’s screening of Morgan Neville’s nostalgic documentary WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR (2018) at the Woodruff Arts Center at 5:15pm! Rock on down to day 2 of the Sweetwater 420 Fest! Get some soul with The Nth Power and The 4 Korners at Aisle 5! Alt-rock it up with The Verve Pipe at City Winery! Crooked Mile dish out a night of bluegrass at the Crimson Moon Café! Get funky with Bird City Revolutionaries at the Elliott Street Pub! Spend the night with Herman’s Hermits at the Mill Town Music Hall in Bremen! Get rootsy with John Driskell Hopkins at Venkman’s! Liza Anne folks it up at The Earl! Kavarna dishes out a night of Eastern European ballads, folk and jazz with The Vesna Quartet and the Porchlighters! Grunge it up with Kool Kat VJ Anthony during his ‘90s Alternative Music Video Dance Party at Amsterdam Atlanta! Spend the night with Kool Kat Mary Fahl at the Red Clay Theatre! Get the old-school blues with the Juke Joint Dukes at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Experience the Vega String Quartet at the High Museum! House Rocker Johnson & The Shadows get bluesy at Blind Willie’s! Get the blues with Ross Pead followed by the Nathan Morgan Band at the Northside Tavern! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night! And as always, DJ Romeo Cologne and DJ Kwasi Mandisco transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, April 22

It’s day 3 and your last chance to rock out at the Sweetwater 420 Fest! Jam it up at Aisle 5 with Bird Dog Jubilee and the Super Jam Allstars! Stomp on down to the Crimson Moon Café for a night with The Mulligan Brothers! Spend the night with Nicole Atkins, Indianola and Mishka Shubaly at The Earl! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar with Eddie Tigner! And get the rockin’ blues with Fatback Deluxe at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Ongoing

Learn some history with the Gwinnett Parks Foundation’s Historic Walking Tours every Saturday through April 21! (LAST CHANCE!)

ABBA on down to the Aurora Theatre for their presentation of MAMMA MIA! Running through April 22! (LAST CHANCE!)

The Horizon Theatre Company presents FREAKY FRIDAY: A NEW MUSICAL, through April 22! (LAST CHANCE!)

Get really retro at the Georgia Renaissance Festival, jousting through June 4!

My Parents’ Basement goes old-school with their monthly Pinball Tournament, every firsts Wednesday of the month!

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.