ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Contributing Writer

Spring is here, all you Retro lovelies! So, leave the frigid cold behind, lose the layers and come out and play! Retro Atlanta has all the rockin’ good times you’ve been craving, from revved up rockabilly, honky-tonk, 70s rock n roll and everything in between!  And as always, we’ve got all the blues and jazz you could ever want! So, don’t be square and live la vida Retro!

Monday, March 24

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!’  Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! Get down and dirty with Barrelhouse Bob Page at Blind Willie’s! And blues it up at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack  for an extra helping of the blues with The Pork Bellys and some finger lickin’ BBQ!
 
Tuesday, March 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 event accompanied by some rockin’ blues and Southern rock! Boogie on down to The Star Bar and get groovy with The Funk Godfather, DJ Romeo Cologne and DJ Quasi Mandisco every other Tuesday! Take a trip to Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs for a night of folksy tunes with Sailing to Denver! Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint gets bluesy with the Bob Page Trio! Stomp on down to Big Tex for a night with Moira Nelligan & The Dixie Jigs and their old-fashioned Americana! 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. Timo Arthur rocks out country blues style at Blind Willie’s! The Entertainment Crackers gets bluesy with their folksy Americana sounds at the Northside Tavern.  It’s serendipity at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern at their screening of Nora Ephron’s romantic comedy, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE(1993) during their Happily Ever After series’ screening at 7:30 pm! And get trippy in outer space with Andrei Tarkovsky’s, SOLARIS (1972) at the Midtown Art Cinema at 7 pm!

Wednesday, March 26

Honky-tonk on down to Smith’s Olde Bar because it’s a hootenanny and a half tonight as they deliver their Slim Chicken Honky-tonk Extravaganza with the stompin’ and boogyin’ tunes of Atomic Boogie, Kool Kat Caroline Engel & The Ramblers, Whiskey Belt and Big Boss Man! Rock on down to The Star Bar for a night of raunchy rock n roll with The Johnny Rebs, The Dirty Magazines and Madre Padre! Get a taste of some Americana, pop and Appalachian rhythms at Eddie’s Atticwith Cicada Rhythm’s CD release and Loves It! Beverly ‘Guitar’ Watkins gets down and dirty blues-style at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint! Frankly my dears, we do give a damn, so make your way to the Margaret Mitchell House & Museum and join Atlanta History Center’s Party with the Past event, celebrating the 75^th Anniversary of GONE WITH THE WIND and let Sue Verhoef give you the scoop on the 1939 World Premier! Get your fill of some rockin’ blues with The Cazanovas at Blind Willie’s! Stomp on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack ‘cause it’s a flood of rockin’ blues and funk with The Georgia Flood! 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.  And ‘You must remember this, a kiss is still a kiss’, at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern as they screen Nora Ephron’s romantic comedy, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE(1993) during their Happily Ever After series’ matinee screening at 11:30 am!

Thursday, March 27

It’s Bluegrass Thursday at the Red Light Café, so stomp on down and get your fill of City Mouse, Caleb Warren & The Perfect Gentlemen, Kristina Murray and Reverend Hylton & The Devil’s Hands! It’s an old-timey retro revival at Smith’s Olde Bar as Big Daddy Love and The Jugtime Ragband raise an Appalachian and Dixieland ruckus! Get your dancin’ shoes on and spend an evening, jumpin’ and wailin’ Big Easy-style with Aaron Neville and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band as they celebrate the roots of jazz and New Orleans at the Cobb Energy Center! The Randy Chapman Trio gets bluesy at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! 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! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues or stomp on down to Blind Willie’s for a little Americana and blues with Heather Luttrell & the Possumden! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! Hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a couple Mai Tais and get toasty with the steamy island funk of The Volcanauts with Tracey Wolfe! And it’s your last chance to get fated at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern as they screen Nora Ephron’s romantic comedy, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE (1993) during their Happily Ever After series’ screening at 7:30 pm!

Friday, March 28

The Star Bar gets post-punk and psychedelic with Abby Gogo, Georges Bataille Battle Cry, Shepherds and Sheeba Darwin! The Elliott Street Pub delivers a night of avant-garde Zappa/Mr. Bungle-style with Opposite Box! It’s a night of Americana at Eddie’s Attic with The Black Lillies and Josh Oliver! Or 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! Rock on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for The Free Byrds, The Dirty Doors and Scene of the Crime! It’s a night of retro rock at the Drunken Unicorn with Swank Sinatra, The Hungry Ears, BearKnuckle and Hot Wives! Groove on down to Big Tex for Gr8ful Dude & Frenz! Rock out roots style with Cody Marlowe & The Dead Flowers, Back City Woods and Young America at Vinyl! Get psychedelic at Hottie Hawgs BBQ with Swami Gone Bananas! Suzy Bogguss pays tribute to Merle Haggard at the Red Clay Theater!  The Caroline Aiken Band with special guest, Greg Hester, delivers a night of rootsy blues and jazz at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Slink on down to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! Get your salsa, soul and martini fix at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX event with the Orquesta MaCuba that’ll have you cha-cha’ing under the dinosaurs! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues delivers a night of down and dirty blues with Leonard Blush!  Sandra Hall delivers some bluesy tunes at Blind Willie’s with the Shadows! Get funky at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack with the Swamp Funk Quartet! Spend the night with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr at The Strand Theater as they screen Walter Lang’s presentation of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s classic musical, THE KING & I (1956) at 8:00 pm, with a live organ pops variety show at 7:30 pm! ICON 80s Music Video Dance Night invades Famous Pub, with their special John Hughes’ Soundtrack Edition! 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, March 29

Bend over and squeal like a pig because it’s Bacon Fest 2014 at the Masquerade’s Music Park at 1 pm! Leave the kiddies at home because it’s a porkin’ party for the 21+ crowd filled with rockin’ music, carnival games, booze and all things piggy!  The rockin’ musical and entertainment line-up features the Timblerig Circus, the sultry geeky teasers that are Blast Off Burlesque, a rockin’ street marching band, The Seed & Feed Marching Abominable, The Dirt Poets, Jesse & The Great Perhaps, The Fingerin’ Bros., The Soggy Top Boys and so much more!  So, rock on down to the Masquerade and get your fill of pork-galore and a rockin’ bacon-y good time!

It’s‘A Night of Furry Fury’ at The Star Bar as they benefit Paws Atlanta with a rockin’ musical line-up of Bigfoot, Bad Friend, Dusty Booze & The Baby Haters, the Night Terrors, Kool Kat Aileen Loy with Till Someone Loses and Eye and Artificial Kid, with an early 6pm show featuring Sodajerk!  Rev on over to The Pointe in Conyers to catch Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt & the Psycho-DeVilles delivering a night of rockin’ psychobilly that’ll have you dancin’ all night long! Swing on down to the Elliott Street Pub and get a taste of Jacob Deaton! Get a taste of some delta blues and soul at Vinyl with Nathan Angelo, Matrimony and Steve Means! Bluebilly Grit delivers a night of Americana and bluegrass at the Crimson Moon Café! The Bitteroots rock out with some soul at Big Tex! Bela Fleck and his wife Abigail Washburn bluegrass it up at the Rialto Center for the Arts! Or stomp on down to Stone Mountain Village for their 5^th Annual Blue Grassroots Music and Arts Festival for two days of old-time music, arts, crafts and folk dancing in celebration of the City of Stone Mountain’s 175^th Anniversary! Hot Sauce & Honey get funky and old-school in rockin’ Burlesque-style at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! The Kerry Hill Band gets bluesy at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack while The Nighthawks deliver a night of rockin’ roots and blues at Blind Willie’s! Victor Wainwright has the blues at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues and you won’t want to miss Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck firing up his rockin’ blues at Northside Tavern! Take a hilarious trip with King Arthur and his knights as they embark on a trek for the Grail at The Strand Theater as they screen MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (1975) at 8 pm with a pre-show variety pops show at 7:30 pm!  And 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.

Sunday, March 30

Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs delivers their Gypsy Jazz Brunch offering up a plate of Hot Club jamming and Parisian Swing with Kool Kat Amy Pike and the Bonaventure Quartet from 12:30 to 3:30 pm every 2^nd & 4^th Sunday! Greg Trooper and Brandon Reeves deliver a little Memphis soul, Greenwich Village folk and Nashville twang at Eddie’s Attic! Mang pays a rockin’ tribute to Ween at Smith’s Olde Bar! Jez Graham and friends deliver a night of jazz, rock and blues at The Family Dog! Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint gets funky, New Orleans-style with The Mar-Tans! And slither on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for some rockin’ blues with Snakelegs!

Ongoing

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

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.