ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Contributing Writer

‘This Week’ in Retro Atlanta has a rockin’ menu of vintage events galore! From surf rock to rockabilly to some dirty rock n roll and even a little Burly-Q for all you saucy tarts!  So, get off that couch and rock out retro-style this week!

Monday, May 5

Surf on down to The Earl for a night with the legendary ‘King of the Surf Guitar’, Dick Dale and Kool Kat Joshua Longino with Andrew & the Disapyramids! Caroline Pond (Snake Oil Medicine Show) gets old-timey and bluegrasses it up at the Red Light Café!  For a night of ‘60s, Dylan and Hank Williams-inspired Americana, stomp on down to the Atlanta Room at Smith’s Olde Bar for Shane Piasecki! Or for a little bluegrass, fiddle over to their Music Room to catch Hot Buttered Rum and the Front Porch Players! 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! Get the blues at Blind Willie’s with Bill Sheffield! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a helping of Pork Bellys and some finger lickin’ BBQ!
 
Tuesday, May 6

Life is a Cabaret, old chum! So high-tail it on over to the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern for a night filled with ‘30s Burly-Q glam during their screening of Bob Fosse’s CABARET (1972) during their Musical May series at 7:30 pm! Shawn Spencer (Seven Handle Circus) delivers a night of ‘Bad Ass Bluegrass’ at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Get really retro at the GwinnettPerforming Arts Center as The Gwinnett Symphony Orchestra and Chorus presents an evening with Beethoven, Dvorak and more, at 7 pm! Get the blues at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint with the Bob Page Trio! Boogie on down to The Star Bar and get groovy at The Funk Godfather, DJ Romeo Cologne’s Funk Royale featuring DJ Quasi Mandisco every Tuesday! Blind Willie’s gets bluesy with the BooHoo Ramblers! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm! 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! And The Entertainment Crackers gets bluesy with their folksy Americana sounds at the Northside Tavern.

Wednesday, May 7

Swing on by 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! The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger featuring Sean Lennon spins some avant-garde folk rock at TerminalWest! Rock out with the ‘blues woman power’ of Beverly ‘Guitar’ Watkins at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint! Or rendezvous at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a night with Frankie’s Blues Mission! Get some hill-country blues at Blind Willie’s with John Sosebee!  Fat Matt’s Rib Shack has The Hollidays! 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 skip school for the glamorous life at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern and catch Bob Fosse’s CABARET (1972) during their Musical May series’ matinee screening at 11:30 am!

Thursday, May 8

Get glitzy and shimmy on down to The Loft as the Atlanta School of Burlesque presents their Spring DebuTease Ball, showcasing the newest saucy talent and featuring Burly-Q performances by The Chameleon Queen, Kool Kat LolaLesoleil, Nikki Nuke’m and Kool Kat Ursula Undress!

Get filled with a little gritty rock n roll at Wonderroot with Swank Sinatra, R_Garcia, D&D Sluggers and Amateur Night at Club Stupid! Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint transforms into the Big Easy as The Mar-Tans deliver their New Orleans’ funk! It’s a night of movie retro movie tunes at The Strand Theater with Symphony on the Square’s ‘Pops’ concert, featuring tunes from GONE WITH THE WIND, THE SOUND OF MUSIC and more! Get your ‘90s fix at Smith’s Olde Bar during their ‘Tribute to the Blue Album by Weezer’ celebrating its 20th anniversary with Nine Times Blue, Cosmoknox, BlackFox, Walk Through Walls and more in the Atlanta Room! Or make your way to the Music Room for a night of folk, soul and rock with JohnnySwim! It’s a night of Pink Floyd at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center with Brit Floyd, ‘The World’s Greatest Pink Floyd Show’! Stomp on down to the Red Light Café for Bradford Lee Folk & the Bluegrass Boys and Little Country Giants! Taste the retro-style fusion and French Gypsy jazz of Beats Antique at the Buckhead Theatre with a little dusty folk-stomp with Sean Hayes! Get a taste of Blue Moon Soup at Big Tex! 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! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! Blind Willie’s delivers folksy blues’n roots with Steve James! Hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a couple Mai Tais and rockin’ island tunes! And it’s your last chance to chum it up with Liza Minnelli at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern during their screening of Bob Fosse’s CABARET (1972) during their Musical May series at 7:30 pm!

Friday, May 9

Today begins the rockin’ 3-day retro-infused indie rock extravaganza that is the Shaky Knees Music Festival running through May 11! So, rock on down to the ‘city within a city’, Atlantic Station while devouring some rockin’ tunes on four outdoor stages, delicious treats from local food trucks and artisans and venders throughout! Today’s musical lineup includes The National, compared to Joy Division and Leonard Cohen; ‘90s indie alt-rockers, Spoon; a little New Jersey punk with The Gaslight Anthem; Dropkick Murphys and their punky folk rock reminiscent of the Clash and the Pogues; The Airborne Toxic Event; a little blues rock with Band of Skulls; the psychedelic and classic rock of Graveyard; a little old-time soul with Charles Bradley & HisExtraordinaires; the soulful blues and Prog rock of White Denim; a little psychedelic pop and reggae funk with Wild Belle; The Whigs; a little old southern rock with The Bright Light Social Hour; a bit of alt-country with American Aquarium; the garage-rock revival of Blood Red Shoes and so much more for your rockin’ pleasure!  So, come on out for a little retro-revival!

Get uber geeky and beam on up to Legend Café for their Trek Trance Star Trek Costume Dance Party, produced by MarsterCon! Or Steampunk it up at the Red Light Café for DJ Doctor Q’s Atlanta Speakeasy Electroswing event, featuring jazz, Big Band, electronica and a little saucy cabaret with Kool Kat Persephone Phoenix and Nina Charrise, courtesy of the Atlanta Burlesque & Cabaret Society! The non-super group, super group, The Winery Dogs, rocks out at The Variety Playhouse featuring members of Poison and Mr. Big!   For a taste of some Cajun Zydeco funk, stomp on down to the Northside Tavern for Zydefunk! For a night of Brit rock infused blues, make your way to The Earl for Man Man and The Black Cadillacs! Stomp on down to Eddie’s Attic for The Grahams! The Rock Tenors rock out to the tunes of Journey, the Doobie Brothers, Paul McCartney and more as they perform with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, featuring Rob Evan (Keep a lookout for our Kool Kat interview soon!), Micah Wilshire and Shem von Shroeck! The Sock Hops deliver their four-part harmonies to tunes of the ‘50s to the ‘70s at The Strand Theater!  Fatback Deluxe gets the blues at Hottie Hawgs BBQ!  Rumble on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for the rockin’ blues of Rumblefish! Sandra Hall & the Shadows get the blues at Blind Willie’s! Get your fill of your favorite MTV videos with Kool Kat VJ Anthony at his ICON 80s: Music Video Dance Night invading Famous Pub every Friday night at 10 pm! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues delivers some New Orleans’ funk with The Mar-Tans! Get funky under the dinosaurs at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX event with Cooper Tisdale and their soulful, funky jazz! 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, May 10

It’s day 2 to get rocked at the Shaky Knees Music Festival at Atlantic Station! Today’s musical line-up includes the ‘90s indie rock group, ModestMouse; a little garage punk and jangle pop with The Replacements; some psychedelic rock with Portugal. The Man; some foot-stompin’ Americana with Dawes; Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn-inspired indie folk and soul with JennyLewis; blues rock and indie soul with the Cold War Kids; the folksy LordHuron; a little post-punk revival with the Tokyo Police Club; some alt-country and roots rock with The Lone Bellow; Hayes Carll and his folksy Americana; Gregory Alan Isakov; the foot-stompin’ tunes of The ApacheRelay; a little absurdist bluegrass with the Packway Handle Band; some soulful psychedelia with PHOX and so much more!

For a little good ‘ol rock n roll, come on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for The Safes and Ethan Smith in the Atlanta Room while The Pergantis Trio and Shudderdog deliver a night of jazzy rock and heavy blues in the Music Room! Stomp on down to Steve’s Live Music for Jason Kenney and special guests Carly Gibson and Hanna Zale (BoomFox)! Get bluesy at Blind Willie’s with James Armstrong! Or come on down to the Northside Tavern for the legendary Ike Stubblefield! The Gwinnett Coral Guild presents their ‘Popular Classics, the Music of Our Lives’ event at the Red Clay Theater, featuring classic Broadway tunes! The Georgia Symphony Orchestra gets jazzy at The Strand Theater at 8 pm! Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho-DeVilles rev it up at the Dixie Tavern! Get a taste of Gravy at The Family Dog! Cirque Du Soleil presents their ‘Michael Jackson; the Immortal World Tour,’ combining Jackson’s King of Pop tunes with their choreography at the Gwinnett Arena! 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, May 11

It’s Mother’s Day folks! So grab your mama and have a rockin’ day in Retro Atlanta today!  It’s day 3 and your last chance to get your all-day music fix at Atlantic Station during the Shaky Knees Music Festival! Today’s rockin’ line-up includes Alabama Shakes and their Americana blues rock; a little indie folk with Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros; the post-punk outfit, the Violent Femmes; a little alt-bluegrass of Trampled by Turtles; Iron &Wine; Jason Isbell (Drive By Truckers) and his alt/classic country; DeerTick; a little retro-inspired indie rock of The Hold Steady!; Blitzen Trapper; the folk tunes of Mason Jennings; a little rockin’ soul with Langhorne Slim& the Law; a little Baroque pop with San Fermin; Jackie Green; the classic rock of the Kopecky Family Band; a little sludge pop with The Weeks; a tent city revival with Benjamin Booker and so much more!

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! Stomp over to Big Tex for their Bluegrass Brunch featuring The Rhubarbarians! And Billy Waldrep celebrates his ‘Smoke from the Kitchen’ record release party at the Red Clay Theater!

Ongoing

Take a magic carpet ride through the historic Arabian-themed Fox Theater as they kick off their ‘Spring Fling withWild Things’ tours running through May 17^th!

Center for Puppetry Arts spins ‘Charlotte’s Web’ through May 25^th!

Get medieval and really retro this spring in Lilburn at the 29^th Annual Georgia Renaissance Festival running through June 8^th

ICON 80s: Music Video Dance Night rocks out at the Famous Pub every Friday night with a different 80’s theme!

The Star Bar gets groovy with The Funk Godfather, DJ Romeo Cologne and DJ QuasiMandisco every 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.