ATLRetro

By Jordan Barbeau
Contributing Blogger

Monday, October 17

From 3 PM on, savor tropical sounds and libations, as well as a Polynesian dinner during Mai Tai Monday at Smith’s Olde Bar. Northside Tavern hosts its weekly Blues Jam. To break up the Monday monotony, head over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for dinner and a show, as local blues/jazz band Dry White Toast performs at 8 PM. For a classy, laid-back evening, head over to Café 290 around 8:30 PM for their Big Band Night, featuring the jazz talents of Joe Gransden and his 16-piece band.

Tuesday, October 18

Grab your horn and head to Twain’s in Decatur for a Joe Gransden jazz jam session starting at 9 p.m. JT Speed is at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. Catch Tues. Retro in the Metro nights at Midtown’s Deadwood Saloon, featuring video mixes of ’80s, ’90s and 2Ks hits.

The Serenaders

Wednesday, October 19

Get ready to rumba, cha-cha and jitterbug at the weekly Swing Night at Graveyard Tavern. Frankie’s Blues Mission plays Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. Danny “Mudcat” Dudeck blues it down at Northside Tavern. Dance to ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s hits during Retro in the Metro Wednesdays presented by Godiva Vodka, at Pub 71 in Brookhaven. For a down-home good time, Retrobilly/country bands The Serenaders and Waller are both playing at Park Tavern.

Thursday, October 20

The Breeze Kings and Frankie’s Blues Mission bring on the blues respectively at Northside Tavern and Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. BlueBilly Grit play Bluegrass Thursday at Red Light Cafe. Smith’s Olde Bar showcases the talents of New Orleans-based funk/brass band The New Orleans Suspects and sweeter-than-honey honky-tonk band The Honeycutters . Southern belle Sonia Leigh  shows off her powerful voice and moving lyrics at the Variety Playhouse.

Friday, October 21

Who says charity events have to be boring? The Morningside-Lenox Park Association holds their fourth annual Monumental Ball at MagnoliaPark. It’s $60 a head for admission, but the Ball benefits the restoration of the Morningside-Lenox area. Guests will enjoy food, drinks, dancing and live music courtesy of Kingsized. Big Mike‘s inspired by Elvis, and with their Vegas-y rock/swing/ lounge feel, your hips will be moving just like the King’s.

Part of an 80s triple threat, Denim Arcade performs in 37 Main’s “3 Bands 1 Night,” along with Reason Y and Asphalt Eyes. If you missed our Kool Kat interview with Denim Arcade leading lady Becky Cormier Finch (also of Three Quarter Ale), read it here. Eighties big hair may be scary, but as Halloween approaches, no October weekend would be complete without some real horror movies. Splatter Cinema presents Lucio Fulci‘s brain-munching classic ZOMBIE(1979) in full remastered and uncensored 35mm gory glory at 9:30 p.m. at the Plaza Theatre, and homegrown neo-exploitation movie DEAR GOD NO! starts a not-for-the-squeamish week run at the Plaza, too. Read our exclusive interview with director James Bickert here. Meanwhile The Mansion Hotel on Peachtree unleashes Alfred Hitchcock’s infamous THE BIRDS (1963) in its English garden; pre-screening reception starts at 7:30 p.m.

Salsambo provides the music and gives lessons in the fiery Latin dance style during Salsa Night at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX, where drinks and food compliment several showings on Atlanta’s largest IMAX movie screen. Stoney Brooks performs at Northside Tavern. Head over to The Basement for some southern-style head-bangin’ as The Six Shot Revival and Floored (take the stage.

Saturday, October 22

The Little 5 Points Halloween Festival takes Atlanta by spooktacular storm! From Noon until 11 PM, Little 5 Points is transformed from boho business and arts district to one of the best and most creative Halloween treats in the southeast! Food, drink, live music and a huge parade combine to offer tons of frights and fun. A little bat tells us that ATLRetro may even be joining that phantasmagoric parade (Care to march with us dressed up as your favorite 20th century decade? Drop a line to atlretro@gmail.com). The day’s band line-up includes some ATLRetro favorites such as hell-raisin’ honky-tonk honeys The BareKnuckle Betties and the glam-tastic, groovy ghoulie The Sexual Side Effects. Catch up on our Kool Kats on Julea Thomerson (The BareKnuckle Betties) here and Amber Taylor (The Sexual Side Effects) here. And we can’t think of a more fitting end to the night than the one and only Jayne County and the Electick Queers conjuring up the spirit of legendary Max’s Kansas City behind the Star Bar at 10 p.m. Jayne’s our Kool Kat this week, too.

Kermit Ruffins

The Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State University holds the opening night of A Night in Treme: The Musical Majesty of New Orleans, based on the HBO Spike Lee film TREME. Kermit Ruffins and the Soul Rebels Brass Band and other top ‘Nawlins musicians chronicle the history of the Big Easy’s music and traditions.

If you grew up in the ’80s, consider the Red Brick Brewing Company your time machine for the night: TAP is throwing an ’80s themed party there! Food from TAP, beer from the Red Brick Brewing Company and live music by ’80s band Girls, Girls, Girls assure that festivities will stretch on into the night! Tease your hair big and bring on your best ’80s outfit, as costumes will be judged for three best awards. For more ’80s music and fun, head over to the Dunwoody Music Festival in Brook Run Park. Headlining are special guest appearances by Liberty DeVitto (Billy Joel’s drummer), Jim Peterik (the writer of Survivor’s hit “Eye of the Tiger“), Jeff Carlisi (one of the founding members of .38 Special), and many more!

For a more artsy affair, the High Museum of Art continues their month-long film event, Modern Masters of Film: From Edison to Scorsese, with a rare showing of the 1916 silent Western HELL’S HINGES. An extra treat is an introduction and silent-film accompaniment by distinguished composer and scholar Dr. Philip Carli.

Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho-Devilles. Photo courtesy of Hot Rod Walt.

Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho-Devilles are back at the Dixie Tavern, for what always is a rockabilly great time and maybe set a guitar on fire. Read our Kool Kat on Hot Rod Walt here. Tommy Womack, former lead singer of ’80s post-punk band Government Cheese, takes the stage at Eddie’s Attic. If you’re in the mood for blues, Fat Matt’s showcases the high energy style of blues act Big C & The Ringers, while Breeze Kings rock the blues at Northside Tavern. And as usual, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours.

Sunday, October 23

The Serenaders serve up “modern retrobilly” at blues “dunch” between 1-4 PM at The Earl. Fatback Deluxe brings on the blues at Fat Matt’s. Eddie’s Attic houses the musical talents of the Jan Smith Student Showcase, a group of student performers led by their teacher, Jan Smith. Smith’s Olde Bar gets you ready for the week ahead with a musical triple threat in the form of Homefront, The Deacon Brandon Reeves and Summer More than Others.

Ongoing

The Supremes at the Apollo Theater. Photo courtesy of The Apollo Theater Foundation, Inc. Photo by Kwame Brathwaite.

Dad’s Garage‘s  ZONKERS – An Eighties Tit Comedy has been extended through Oct. 29.Yup the zany guys and gals at Dad’s celebrate a beautiful and largely forgotten movie genre – films about girls with big boobs that are out of the league of the nerdy boys that crave them. At a summer camp! Plus zero gravity scenes set in outer space and a Boob Bot. Main Stage.

Explore one of America’s most iconic theaters in AIN’T NOTHING LIKE THE REAL THING: HOW THE APOLLO THEATER SHAPED AMERICAN ENTERTAINMENT, a new special exhibition opening today at the Atlanta History Center and running through March 4, 2012. Presented by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, in collaboration with the Apollo Theater Foundation, the display includes historic and contemporary costumes, playbills, music scores, graphic images and recorded music.

LIFE AND DEATH IN THE PYRAMID AGE: THE EMORY OLD KINGDOM MUMMY features the first public viewing in 50 years of the oldest Egyptian mummy in the Western Hemisphere, acquired from excavations at Abydos by Emory Theology Professor William A. Shelton in 1920. Watch for a Really Retro piece on this fascinating exhibit at Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum soon. Through Dec. 11, 2011.

If you know of a cool happening coming up soon, send suggestions to ATLRetro@gmail.com.