ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Contributing Writer

Atlanta is a rockin’ inferno of all things Retro this week! Come on out and see what we’ve found for you! Get revved and rock out with some old-timey ‘billy music! Get to flappin’ with the roarin’ 20s! Or take a trip and get psychedelic! We’ve got whatever your little vintage heart desires! So, Don’t be square, get out and get Retro!

Monday, February 24

Get psychedelic at 529 with Quilt, Abby GoGo and Small Reactions! Cinefest gets retro as they screen William Greaves’ most well-known film, SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM: TAKE ONE (1968) and his attempt to capture true reality on film, running through March 2! 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!’ Blues on down to Blind Willie’s for a night of rockin’ blues with Marshall Ruffin! 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 with some finger lickin’ BBQ!
 
Tuesday, February 25

Shimmy on down to the Red Light Café for a Burlesque Battle of the Babes! Get saucy and spend the evening with Sadie Hawkins at her ‘Last Pasties Standing: The Glitter Dome’ event accompanied by some rockin’ songs from 80’s movies! Stomp on down to Big Tex for a night with Moira Nelligan & The Dixie Jigs and their old-fashioned Americana! Timo Arthur delivers his rockin’ blues at Blind Willie’s! Or boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta for a taste of Bill Sheffield’s acoustic roots and blues! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm. The Entertainment Crackers gets bluesy with their folksy Americana sounds at the Northside Tavern. Boogie on down to The Star Bar and get groovy with The Funk Godfather, DJ Romeo Cologne and DJ Quasi Mandisco every other Tuesday! The Northlake Festival Movie Tavern will have you packing your bags and running off to Morocco as they screen Michael Curtiz’s classic Bogart-filled Hollywood tale, CASABLANCA (1942) during their Salute to the Oscars series’ screening at 7:30 pm! And the Center for Puppetry Arts gets really retro literary-style as they present David Simpich’s marionette-filled adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic, ‘Great Expectations’, running through March 2!

Wednesday, February 26

It’s a hootenanny and a half tonight at Smith’s Olde Bar as they kick off their Slim Chicken Honky-tonk Extravaganza!  You’ll be stompin’ all night to the revved up and rockin’ tunes of Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt & the Psycho-DeVilles, Slim Wray, Buck O’ Five, Whiskey Belt and so much more! Give love a bad name and make your way to the Highland Inn Ballroom Lounge for a night of belly-laughs as Write Club Atlanta presents their  ‘Scene Missing Episode 7: Bad Love’ event, offering up a night of writing and comedy based on film where love has gone horribly wrong! Blood Drunk Records presents a night of rockin’ psychedelic punk at The Star Bar featuring the Surrogates, Doesin, Phossy Jaw and Cinema Novo! Honky-tonk on down to The Earl for Robert Ellis and T. Hardy Morris! Get Georgia on your mind and head down to the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center for a night of tunes celebrating the legendary Ray Charles, during their ‘Jazz Roots’ series at 8 pm! Frank Barham gets jazzy at Churchill Grounds while The Breeze Kings deliver a night of Chicago and Delta blues at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint! Blind Willie’s gets bluesy with a tinge of jazz and southern soul with Kool Kat Scott Glazer & his Mojo Dojo! Frankie’s Blues Mission takes you for a rockin’ blues voyage at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! It’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.  Get the cure for ‘love without love’ tonight at Emory Cinematheque’s screening of Leos Carax’s MAUVAIS SANG (THE NIGHT IS YOUNG) (1986) during their Global French Cinema series at Emory’s White Hall! Here’s lookin’ at you, kid, so make your way to the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern for their screening of Michael Curtiz’s classic tale, CASABLANCA (1942) during their Salute to the Oscars series’ matinee screening at 11:30 am!

Thursday, February 27

Rock out with some honky-punk at the Dixie Tavern in Marietta with The Law Band and Kool Kat Phil Stair with Grim Rooster! It’s a retro-infused night at The Star Bar with a little reggae and punked-out ska with Beauregard & The Down Rights along with Blackfoot Gypsies, Easy Beat and Strange Planet! Stomp on down to The Earl for Shonna Tucker & Eye Candy, Bloodkin and The Higher Choir! Blues on down to Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs for a night with Andy Margolis & The Usual Suspects! 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! Make your way to the Crimson Moon Café for The Tom & Julie Show featuring tributes to tunes from the 60s to the 90s every Thursday! Get glitzy and do the Charleston at the Georgia Ensemble Theater as they present Simon Levy’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic tale of the love, obsession and the roarin’ 20s, ‘The Great Gatsby’, running through March 16! Or swing on down to the Elliot Street Pub for a night with Justin Chesarek and Ryan Whitehead! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings while Heathter Luttrell delivers a night of rockin’ blues and Americana at Blind Willie’s! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! Get your boogie on at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village. Catch a wave and boogie down beach-party style with Kool Kat Joshua Longino with Andrew & the Disapyramids while sipping a couple MaiTais at Trader Vic’s! And it’s your last chance to escape to the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern as they screen Michael Curtiz’s classic Bogart-filled Hollywood tale, CASABLANCA (1942) during their Salute to the Oscars series’ screening at 7:30 pm!

Friday, February 28

The Strand Theater gets really retro with their screening of Fred Newmeyer and Sam Taylor’s silent classic, SAFETY LAST! (1923) starring Harold Lloyd, accompanied by Ron Carter on the Mighty Allen Theatre Organ! Get your fill of some Avant-garde Czech New-Wave tonight, as Film Love presents part one of three screenings with Jan Nemec’s DIAMONDS OF THE NIGHT (1964) at Emory’s White Hall at 8 pm! Get a taste of some browngrass (“just like bluegrass, but just a little dirtier”), and stomp on down to the Red Light Café for a night with the Porch Bottom Boys and Sour Bridges! Get psychedelic at Hottie Hawgs BBQ with Swami Gone Bananas! It’s a King Cake Party at Northside Tavern, so come on out and get funky with Zydefunk! Rock on down to The Star Bar for a night of dirty rock n roll at Volume IV’s record release party, along with Kool Kat Aileen Loy with Till Someone Loses an Eye, The Baphomettes and Bully! Get old-fashioned at Big Tex with The Woodshedders and their old-school bluegrass and gypsy jazz!  Boogie on down into Disco Hell at The Family Dog as DJ Quasi Mandisco delivers a night of classic funk, soul and disco the last Friday of every month! Beam me up Scotty, because ‘Captain’s Log’ is back at the Village Theatre, promising a night of science-fiction inspired comedy of space-tastic proportions! Catch a glimpse of Ol’ Blue Eyes tonight as The Electromatics deliver a night of Chicago and West Coast blues and jazz standards at Churchill Grounds! For a night of Dixie blues, head on over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for Seminole Jackson! Get your party hats on ‘cause it’s Blind Willie’s 28^th year of rockin’ the blues, so come on out and celebrate with Lazy Lester and Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne!  Rock on down to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX event for the high-energy band, The Pack while sipping cocktails under the dinosaurs! The Rockaholics get bluesy at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues while The Rainmen rock out to some 60s and 70s rock n roll at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! And do the Time-Warp while spicing things up with some naughty and 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, March 1

You’ve got the fever, Blast Off Burlesque has the cure! Boogie on down in your snazziest platforms and polyester to The Plaza Theater for their TabooLaLa: Saturday Night Fever event! Lobby pre-party shenanigans with DJ Westwood A Go-Go begin at 9 pm! Or geek on down to Famous Pub and get infested at their Infestation 3: Halfway to DragonConevent for a night of zombies, go-go dancers and kilt-wearing lads!

It’s a Mardi Gras Party at the Drunken Unicorn with some ragtime Dixieland prohibition-era pandemonium with Blair Crimmins & The Hookers, Count M’Butu and The Mar-Tans! It’s part 2 of Film Love’s Avant-garde Czech New-Wave series, so come on out to Emory’s White Hall for Jan Nemec’s once “banned forever,” 35mm screening of his surreal dark comedy, A REPORT ON THE PARTY AND THE GUESTS (1966) at 8 pm! Get psychedelic at the Red Light Café for their Greatful Dead Night featuring gr8FLdude & frenz and Insomniac Gypsy! Get Sham-rocked with some smooth 70s and 80s tunes with Yacht Rock Schooner at Park Tavern in Piedmont Park! Or for a night of rockin’ cow punk and alt country, rock on down to The Earl for R.E.M. co-founder, Peter Buck and Alejandro Escovedo (formerly of the 70s punk group, The Nuns)! Variety Playhouse gets sloppytonkin’ with Shovels & Rope and Hurray For the Riff Raff! Jake & The Beanstalk gets funky at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs while Heathter Luttrell rocks some Americana and blues at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! For some alt folk and outlaw old-timey country, rock on over to Smith’s Olde Bar for Annabell’s Curse, Southern Bred Co. and The Chris Massey Band in the Atlanta Room, or if you need something a little more funky, boogie upstairs with Freddy’s Finest with Kofi Burbridge, the Donna Hopkin’s Band and Sugarfoot! It’s your second chance to get your fill of The Woodshedders and their old-timey bluegrass and gypsy jazz at Big Tex! Montana Skies gets rootsy at the Crimson Moon Café! Come out and celebrate Mardi Gras-style at the Red Clay Theater with the swingin’ and ragtime band, Sweet Deat & The Revivalists with special guest Adron! Carolina & The Chocolate Drops and their string band get old-timey delivering some old-school blues and bluegrass at the Ferst Center for the Arts! Get glamorous at the Candler Field Museum in Williamson, GA at their ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ gala and dinner dance with the 20s and 30s sounds of Peachtree Jazz Edition! And, it’s DJ Romeo Cologne’s 1000^th funk show at the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge, so, get funky and boogie into his ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, March 2

Get jazzy at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs with Deb Bowman! Get your fill of some Hot Club jamming and Parisian Swing with Kool Kat Amy Pike and the Bonaventure Quartet at The Earl during their weekly hangover-friendly ‘dunch’! The Red Light Café gets bluesy early as they offer their 89.3 WRFG Benefit Concert featuring some swell blues with Francine Reed, Matt Wauchope (The Mar-Tans), the Dianne Durrett Trio, Timo Arthur, Steve “The Blues Dude” and Albert White from 1-5 pm! And come back later for some rowdy bluegrass and stompin’ Americana with the Sweet Auburn String Band, The Last Tycoon and Kristen Englenz!  The Buckhead Theater offers up a night of 90s alternative rock with Switchfoot and the Kopecky Family Band!  Get psychedelic and rock on down to the Masquerade for Led Zeppelin 2 delivering Zeppelin’s live concert experience! The Red Clay Theater dishes out some rootsy blues with Bluesman Guy Davis and Fabrizio Poggi, with special guest Veronika Jackson! For a taste of some classical-infused folk pop, skip on over to the Woodruff Arts Center as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra presents Pink Martini with The von Trapps! Get  criminal in the bayou at The Plaza Theater as they screen Jon McBride’s crime drama, THE BIG EASY (1987), starring Dennis Quaid, Ellen Barkin, John Goodman and Ned Beatty! And make your way to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a taste of the blues with Tony Bryant!

Ongoing

The Center for Puppetry Arts presents David Simpich’s marionette-filled adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic, ‘Great Expectations’, through March 2!

Cinefest screens William Greaves’ most well-known film, SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM: TAKE ONE (1968) through March 2!

Georgia Ensemble Theater presents Simon Levy’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic tale of the love, obsession and the roarin’ 20s, ‘The Great Gatsby’, through March 16

New American Shakespeare Tavern presents ‘Romeo & Juliet’ until March 30^th!

The Star Bar gets groovy with The Funk Godfather, DJ Romeo Cologne and DJ QuasiMandisco every other Tuesday!

Steve’s Live Music’s Gypsy Jazz Brunch offers up a plate of Hot Club jamming and Parisian Swing with Kool Kool Kat Amy Pike and the Bonaventure Quartet from 12:30 to 3:30 pm every 2^nd & 4^th Sunday!

Boogie on down into Disco Hell at The Family Dog as DJ Quasi Mandisco delivers a night of classic funk, soul and disco the last Friday of every 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!

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.