ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Contributing Writer

It’s a new dawn! It’s a new day! It’s now 2014, so start the year off right and let Retro Atlanta show you what to do!  We’ve got all the rockin’ swell events you won’t want to miss!  So, get dolled up, get your dancin’ shoes on and live la vida Retro!   Come see what we have in store for you this week!

Monday, December 30

For a night of 70s bar rock and punk funk, rock on down to The Earl as the Barreracudas tear up the stage, along with Dinos Boys and the JP5!  Or for a night of psychedelic circus rock and funky soul, groove on down to Smith’s Olde Bar and catch Zach Deputy, Johnny Awesome and the People’s Blues of Richmond! 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. Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam!  Head on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a side of Dry White Toast with some finger lickin’ BBQ!  And blues it on down to Blind Willie’s for a night with Barrelhouse Bob Page! 

Tuesday, December 31

It’s New Year’s Eve, folks!  Out with the old and in with the new!  Although, we here at ATLRetro prefer the old, so we’ve put together a swell Throwback to the 20^th Century New Year’s Eve Guide <HERE>, that will lead the way as you boogie on down to your final destination in 2013!  Ring in the New Year in style and toast 2014 in Retro Atlanta! We at ATLRetro wish you a very vintage and rockin’ Happy New Year!

Wednesday, January 1

Stomp on over to Big Tex for their annual New Year’s Day Bluegrass Brunch with the Rhubarbarians at 11am!  And what better way to commemorate the first day of 2014 than to come on out to The Plaza Theater and help celebrate the life of the wonderfully brilliant and highly influential actor, Peter O’Toole as they screen one of history’s most notable films, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962), directed by David Lean as well as O’Toole’s more recent comedy/drama, VENUS (2006), directed by Roger Mitchell!  Put on your dancin’ shoes and skip on over to East Atlanta’s Graveyard Tavern for their Graveyard Swing Night, held the first Wednesday of every month, promising an evening of swingin’ jazz and jive with the Savoy Kings!Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! And don’t forget to catch an additional screening of Frank Capra’s classic holiday goodness, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern during their Home For The Holidays series at 11:30 am!

Thursday, January 2

Smith’s Olde Bar gets interstellar and rockin’ with some groovin’ psychedelic space funk with Matt Owen & The Eclectic Tuba, Secondhand Jones and Evan the Raccoon!  It’s Bluegrass Thursday at the Red Light Café, so stomp on over and catch a little mountain bluegrass and Mississippi soul with Grits & Soul and some Americana bluegrass and rockabilly with Battlefield Collective!  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! Rock on over to the Crimson Moon Café for The Tom & Julie Show featuring tributes to tunes from the 60s to the 90s every Thursday! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with The Breeze Kings! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! Or, heckle on down to The Plaza Theater as their Cineprov group riff’s David Cronenberg’s sci-fi remake, THE FLY (1986), starring Jeff Goldblum at 7:30! Get your boogie on at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village. Surf on down to vintage tiki bar, Trader Vic’s for a couple of cocktails and an earful of rockin’ island tunes! And catch an additional screening of  Frank Capra’s classic holiday goodness, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern during their Home For The Holidays series at 7:30 pm!

Friday, January 3

Get your old-timey Americana and rockin’ western fix with Stovall at The Star Bar during their 10^th Anniversary Show with special guests Great Northern, Auction House Letters and Bruce Joyner and The Atomic Clock!  Rock on over to Smith’s Olde Bar as The District Attorneys, as those 90s Brit indie rockers, Oasis, offers up their ‘Resolution Bollocks’ event paying tribute to Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory album in its entirety, along with their side project the Party Dolls!  Groove on down to Mary’s in East Atlanta as they get funky at their Furry Disco Balls disco party!  Or get swanky and swing on over to Eddie’s Attic and spend the evening with Kool Kat Amy Pike and the Bonadventure Quartet as they deliver up some Django gypsy jazz and western swing!  Rev on down to the Buck Creek Tavern in High Falls and get rocked with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt and his Psycho-DeVilles! For a little 60s and 70s rock n roll, trek on over to Big Tex and get a taste of The Rainmen or get psychedelic at The Family Dog with Trucks, Herring, Feltman & Graham!  Darwin’s Burgers & Blues delivers some rockin’ southern blues with The Rhythm Yard! And get funky at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX while sipping a cocktail or two and boogie the night away with Cadillac Jones!

Saturday, January 4

For some foot stompin’ honky tonk and rock n roll, rock on over to The Earl and catch Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires, with Concord America and Made ready!  Or get honky punked and revved at the Good ol Days Irish Pub with a little honkytonk rockabilly noise Grim Rooster with Kool Kat Phil Stair!  Get rebellious and jump on in at The Star Bar for a night of old school punk rock with The El Caminos, Catfight and Brawful!  Or for a little post punk, nerd-core, hop on over to the Masquerade for a little retro-inspired rock with Light the Avenue, Go, Robo! Go!, Lights After Dark, The Road Side and Arrival Notes!  Come celebrate the King’s birthday at Big Tex with the Pelvis Breastlies and their all-female Elvis tribute band!  Get steamy at Eddie’s Attic as Annie Sellick & The Hot Club of Nashville delivers a night of sultry and sassy Django-gypsy swing!  Get some real, old-timey Americana with Jonathan Byrd & The Pickup Cowboys at the Crimson Moon Café or maybe jazz on over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a taste of the Jumpin’ Jukes!  It’s your second chance this weekend to get filled with a little 60s and 70s rock n roll, with The Rainmen at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs!  Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets a little soul and rock n roll with The Hollidays! As always, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night. And you won’t want to miss Atlanta’s homegrown Grammy-winning folk duo, The Indigo Girls at Terminal West, benefiting 20 years of their Southerners on New Ground (SONG) organization!

Sunday, January 5

Start your day with a Bluegrass Brunch at Big Tex with the Decatur Bluegrass Association (D.B.A) from 11 to 3pm! Or, for a ‘hangover friendly dunch show’, swing on by The Earl to catch a little swanky gypsy-jazz with Kool Kat Amy Pike and the Bonadventure Quartet! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack gets rockin’ with Fat Back Deluxe and The Family Dog gets bluesy with Bill Sheffield. For a jazzy brunch, slink on over to Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs for an afternoon with Deb Bowman!

Ongoing

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.