ATLRetro

The Fox Theater gets in the retro holiday spirit as they host their annual Larry, Carols & Mo event featuring an organ concert and sing-a-long followed by a screening of Bob Clark’s classic holiday shenanigan-filled flick, A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983) at 7 pm!   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!’ Or 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!  Or make your way to Blind Willie’s and get bluesy with Bill Sheffield!  And stomp on over to Smith’s Olde Bar for an evening of soulful bluegrass and Americana with The Grahams and garage polka folk singin’ with Eliot Bronson!

Tuesday, December 10

Get your shopping done early and slash on down to The Plaza Theater as Splatter Cinema presents Jim Wynorski’s murderous robot-filled horror sci-fi flick, CHOPPING MALL (1986) at 9:30 pm!  Or, get saucy and shimmy on down to The Shelter and spend the night with Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and her Syrens of the South at their Tease Tuesday event where $10 gets you 10 sultry acts, from a little spicy burlesque to acrobats and aerialists! For a little 50s and 60s rockin’ soul, make your way to Terminal West for a night with Kool Kat Ruby Velle & The Soulphonics! Rock on down to Eddie’s Attic for an evening with Drive By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood!  Boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta for a taste of Bill Sheffield’s acoustic roots and grind it out at Blind Willie’s with the down and dirty blues of Little G Weevil! 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! For a night of bluegrass pickin’, stomp on down to Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs for a bluegrass jam with Georgia Railroad! And the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern fills your holidays with a little dark humor family-style as they screen Bob Clark’s classic, A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983) during their Home For The Holidays series at 7:30 pm!

Wednesday, December 11

The Plaza Theater gets retro 80’s holiday-style at their Ha Ha Holiday Doubleheader featuring Jeremiah Chechik’s holiday cult classic, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION (1989) and Joe Dante’s creepy, holiday creature-feature, GREMLINS (1984) at 7:30 and 9:30 pm! Leave the kiddies at home and make it hot retro date night at The Plaza with the Grizwolds and the Gremlins while munching on some tasty holiday snacks and festive adult beverages! Get geeky and sexy at The Shelter during their Night of Mystery Science Theater 3000 Viewing Party! Drinks, robots, heckling! What’s not to love?! Rock on over to Blind Willie’s for some blues, jazz and southern soul with Scott Glazer’s Mojo Dojo!  Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires up the blues! Or maybe splash on over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for some rockin’ blues, soul and funk with Georgia Flood! And skip school and hang out with Ralphie at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern during their matinee screening of Bob Clark’s classic, A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983) during their Home For The Holidays series at 11:30 am!

Thursday, December 12

Put the ‘X’ in X-mas with John Waters at the Variety Playhouse as he delivers his raunchy and darkly comic adults-only one-man show of holiday mayhem and mischief at A John Water’s Christmas! For an evening with the infamous Scrooge and a triple threat of ghostly friends, make your way to the New American Shakespeare Tavern as the Atlanta Shakespeare Company presents Charles Dickens’ classic holiday fare, A CHRISTMAS CAROL through December 23. Or for a jazzy, comical version, dance on over to ARTStation as they present A BROADWAY CHRISTMAS CAROL filled to the brim with holiday cheer and parodies of your favorite Broadway tunes until December 22!

The Rockaholics pay homage to the blues, rock n roll and soul at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Stomp on down to the Red Light Café for Bluegrass Thursday for an evening with the Chattahoochee Chain Gang and Dixieghost! David Bromberg delivers decades’ worth of bluegrass, folk and jazz at Eddie’s Attic! Or make your way to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their weekly Occupy Edgewood event featuring DJs Rene Dellefont & Brian Parris as they offer up the sounds of The Smiths and The Cure and all the morose tunes your black little heart desires. Surf on down to Trader Vic’s for a rockin’ beach party and a couple cocktails with Kool Kat Joshua Longino of Andrew & the Disapyramids!  Ghost Riders Car Club with Kool Kat Spike Fullertonhonkytonks it up at theClermont Lounge! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner delivers some honky-tonk blues while 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 while Blind Willie’s gets soulful with the Sean Chambers Band! It’s 80s/90s Retro Video Night with free drinks ’til 10 at The Shelter. Get your boogie on at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village. And it’s your last chance to shoot your eye out at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern as they screen Bob Clark’s classic, A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983) during their Home For The Holidays series at 7:30 pm!

Friday, December 13

Come celebrate the life of Atlanta’s beloved friend, chef and rockin’ owner of Ria’s Bluebird, Ria Pell at the Variety Playhouse’s Ria Riot!! as they host the ‘Remembering Ria – A Tribute to Ria Pell’ event featuring tasty food, DJs, performance art and rockin’ live music with The Rent Boys, Tweezer, The El Caminos and Slim Chance & The Convicts!

It’s Friday the 13^th, so, all you kiddies who need a Halloween fix during this wintry retro holiday season, tonight’s the night! Get your fill of monster wrastlin’ with Dragula, Dark Mon, The Wolfmen and much more at Club Famous as Monstrosity Championship Wrestling and Kool Kat Shane Morton hosts their Friday the 13^th Holiday Horror Show with The Joy Kills delivering some rockin’ tunes! Or have a haunted holiday and benefit the Songs For Kids Foundation at Vinyl during Mix-Tape Atlanta’s 5^th annual, The Nightmare Before X-Mix event featuring a rockin’ retro evening with James Hall, The Electric Sons, Aerobics Cube, Wesley Cook, Mel Washington, Yosef and a special appearance by the Yacht Rock Review! And get a little more haunted in Halloweentown, where everyday is Halloween, at The Shelter for RITUAL’S Nightmare Before Christmas Party for an evening of goth/industrial! So, don your most frightening getups and celebrate the holidays in haunted style! And get bloody with Santa at The Plaza Theater as they screen Charles Sellier’s horror holiday cult classic, SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT (1984)!

It’s a rockin’ night of retro classic tribute bands! For a Brit rock showdown and extravaganza, battle your way to The Loft as they host, ‘Beatles vs Stones’, a benefit for Poverty is Real. So come on and get rocked for a good cause with Bobby Bare, Jr., Please Please Rock Me, The Shadowboxers, The District Attorneys, The Jagged Stones, Eliot Bronson, Gurufish, Seven Handle Circus, The Damages, An English Place, Back on the Freakout, Faded Bill and Johnny Clash!   Or get groovy for the holi-daze and make your way to the Red Light Café for Grateful Dead Night featuring Escape Vehicle and gr8FLdude & frenz! It’s the 3^rd annual Tom Petty Show at Smith’s Olde Bar with The Sundogs and special guests, The Dirty Souls! To get a taste of the Beach Boys and the Ventures’ Christmas albums, surf on over to The Earl for Chad Shivers and The Silent Knights! And if you’re craving something a little bustier, a little more countrified and uber sweet, make your way to Eddie’s Attic as ATL Collective covers Dolly Parton’s entire holiday album, ‘Home For Christmas’!

Get folky and bluesy at the Red Clay Theater with the Bitteroots while Adron and Kristen Englenz rock out to some 60’s Brazillian Tropicalia! Zydefunk takes over at the Northside Tavern with their Louisiana groove and funk while Francine Reed gets bluesy at Blind Willie’s! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack rocks out with Willy Jackson and Darwin’s Burgers & Blues has the Sean Chambers Band! And make your way to Big Tex for a night with The Rainmen!

Saturday, December 14

Come witness a battle royal between Santa and all your classic monster champs as Kool Kat Shane Morton and Monstrosity Championship Wrestling releases all that is unholy during their all-ages Holiday Matinee featuring the rockin’ tunes of Spooky Partridge at Club Famous!  The Yacht Rock Review gets smooth and groovy at the Variety Playhouse at their Holiday Special! Shimmy on down to the Elliott Street Pub and get teased with a little holiday spice as Kool Kat Kitty Love gets steamy at her Cheeky Belles Holiday Show! The Drunken Unicorn gets funky and electronic with Judi Chicago and special guests White Gold!

Get saxy at Blind Willie’s with Eddie Shaw & The Wolfgang!  Or make your way to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues for Brandon Santini’s blues and jazzy roots! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack delivers a rockin’ good time with Mr. Chapman’s Quarterly Review and Roxie Watson honkytonks it up at the Crimson Moon Café! The Family Dog gets deep and funky with AJ & The Jiggawatts and The Grips! For your retro holiday viewing pleasure, make your way to The Fernbank for their screening of the holiday classic, THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUSE (1974) during their Holly Jolly Film Fest! Get up close and personal with some creepy holiday puppet action at the Center for Puppetry Arts as they screen Joe Dante’s cult holiday horror classic, GREMLINS (1984)! 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, December 15

Start your day with a Bluegrass Brunch with Banjolicious at Big Tex in Decatur from 11am to 2 pm.  The Family Dog gets bluesy with Jez Graham Trio and Francine Reed! Slither on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack and rock out with Snake Legs! Or get folky at the Variety Playhouse with Over the Rhine! Everything is Terrible (EIT), the kings of found footage, gets super retro and nostalgic at their classic Holiday Special at The Earl, delivering a millennium’s worth of VHS memories surrounded by a tacky winter wonderland of puppets, a sing-a-long, candy, fake snow and of course our favorite red-suited hairy fella, Santa! Or jazz on over to The Marlow House for a jazzy Christmas concert featuring Kayla Taylor and Steve Moore! And the ‘Girls in Gowns’ Holiday Jazz Concert kicks off benefiting the Students Without Mothers organization at The Loft at Colony Square offering an evening with three fabulous ladies of jazz; A’ngela Winbush, Chandra Currelley and Darlene McCoy!

Ongoing

Fox Theater Holiday Tours with Kool Kat Scott Hardin, the Fox Theater’s projectionist since 1978 and all sorts of goodies runs until Dec. 29!

The Strand Theater’s ‘A Christmas Tradition’ holiday classic song and dance review runs until Dec. 22!

Alliance Theater presents Charles Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL which spooks through Dec. 29!

New American Shakespeare Tavern presents Charles Dickens’ classic holiday fare, A CHRISTMAS CAROL Scrooging through December 23.

ARTStation presents A BROADWAY CHRISTMAS CAROL through December 22! 

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.