ATLRetro

Joe Gransden.

Monday, March 18

First and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Cafe 290 with 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. Special guests at this show are The Cambridge Middle School Band directed by Ryan Borger.  Northside Tavern hosts its weekly Blues Jam featuring blues and southern soul singer, Lola Gulley. Enjoy BBQ and Pead Boy and the Pork Bellies at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack.

Tuesday, March 19

Thrash to iconic LA punk band BAD RELIGION in heaven at The Masquerade. Minneapolis-St Paul gypsy-rock Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles play the Earl. St. Patrick’s Day may be over, but Irish-themed  THE QUIET MAN (19952), starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, is this week’s retro cinema classic  at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern. Kool Kat Calu Cordeira mixes tiki libations at Mai Tai Tahitian Tuesday starting at 9 p.m. at the Dark Horse Tavern. Grab your horn and head over to Twain’s in Decatur for a Joe Gransden jazz jam session starting at 9 p.m., or you can blues it down with Nathan Nelson & Entertainment Crackers at Northside Tavern. Head over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for some old school R & B, rock ‘n roll and blues with Gray Sartin.

Wednesday, March 20

Head to Centennial High School in Roswell at 7 p.m. for a special concert by Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra featuring jazz and swing standards in the tradition of the Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups. Catch THE QUIET MAN (1952) at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern. Old enough to feel Retro? It’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd. Get ready to rumba, cha-cha and jitterbug at the weekly Swing Night at Graveyard Tavern. Danny “Mudcat” Dudeck brings the gospel blues to Northside Tavern. Billy George blues it down at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack.

Thursday, March 21

The third annual weekend-long Southern Fried Burlesque Fest at the Wyndham Atlanta Galleria kicks off with a happy hour mixer which also will double as the monthly meet-up of the Atlanta Burlesque & Cabaret Club from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., then get a sneak peek at burlesque’s future stars at the Just Hatched Newcomers Showcase and catch the Atlanta premiere of  THE BURLESQUE ASSASSINS, a Canadian comedy/spy action indie feature film set in a 1950s Burlesque theater starring d’Lite and other top burlesque performers from around the world. Read our spicy SFBF preview here. THUNDER ROAD (1958), the Robert Mitchum moonshine exploitation flick, is a ridiculously fun and culty movie, and it’s playing in its natural habitat at the Starlight Drive-In as part of the Atlanta Film Festival at 8:45 pm. It’s a super alt-garage night with Abby Go-Go, Bambara, Religious Girls and Nung River at 529. JB Walker & the Cheap Whiskey Band brings Southern rock to Atlanta’s favorite famous dive strip bar, the Clermont Lounge. Relax with a cocktail while listening to Tongo Hiti playing Retro-Polynesian luxurious live lounge sounds, as well as trippy takes on iconic pop songs, at vintage tiki bar, Trader Vic’s, every Thursday night. Joe Gransden joins the Sal Gentile Trio for a jazzy night at Pricci. Go to Northside Tavern to hear the classic 50s Chicago-style blues of The Breeze Kings. Get on over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack to hear the honkytonkin’ blues of Chickenshack. Plectophelia provide the strumming at Red Light Cafe‘s weekly Bluegrass Thursday.  THE QUIET MAN (1952) plays a final night at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern.

Friday, March 22

The Southern Fried Burlesque Fest at the Wyndham Atlanta Galleria teases into full gear with classes and vendors during the daytime, the Free Range International Showcase headlined by Miss Exotic World 2010 Roxi D’lite and featuring performances by local and national stars including Reigning King of Burlesque Russell Bruner and legends Judith Stein and Toni Elling at 9 p.m. and an after-party at 11:30 p.m with music by Till Someone Loses An Eye featuring Kool Kat Aileen Loy and  Good Golly Svengali. More details in our preview here  Leonard Cohen brings his one-of-a-kind performance to the Fox Theatre. The Electromatics play a combination of Chicago/West Coast blues, blue-eyed soul and an essence of standard Jazz and Sinatra under the dinosaurs at Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX. Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho-Devilles rockabilly it up at The Alamo in Newnan. The Blues Barons blues it down at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. Head to Northside Tavern to hear blues legend Robert Lee Coleman. Grim Rooster, featuring Kool Kat Phil Stair, honkytonks it up at Big Tex in Decatur.

1958 photo of the Healey from Georgia State University. (You can see this view today at https://www.atlantatimemachine.com/downtown/healey2.htm)

Saturday, March 23

Get on up to Southern Fried Burlesque Fest at the Wyndham Atlanta Galleria with classes and vendors during the daytime, then see some of the south’s and nation’s finest compete in the Southern Fried Burlesque Pageant, hosted by Cora Vette with “farewell” performances by last year’s pageant winners Orchid Mei and New Orleans’ Slow Burn Burlesque! Then close out the night with the Southern Scorcher Showcase featuring Talloolah Love, Kisa Von Teasa and talent from all over the Southeast! Again, read more in our preview here. Celebrate the centennials of two landmark downtown Atlanta high-rises the neo-gothic Healey Building and the Kessler City Lofts in a highlight of the Atlanta Preservation Center‘s 1oth annual Phoenix Flies. Read our ATLRetro preview here. Mon Cherie Presents a Rocky Horror Fetish Night at The Masquerade, so dig out your favorite costume from the cult classic and do the Time Warp again. Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho-Devilles shake up The Depot in Covington. Bonaventure Quartet swings into Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs. Cruise-O-Matic plays at Big Tex. Chicken Raid 2013 honors the memory of blues legend Mr. Frank Edwards with a variety of performers at Northside Tavern. Big C and Velvet Delta bring some hot and heavy blues to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. As usual, 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 24

Get your final shopping done and catch up with the stars before they leave town at Southern Fried Burlesque Fest at the Wyndham Atlanta Galleria. Francine Reed and The Trio jazz up The Family Dog. Porch Bottom Boys honkytonk up brunch at Big Tex at noon. Chicken Raid 2013 continues at Northside Tavern to wrap up your weekend or check out some down and dirty Snake Legs blues at Fatt Matt’s Rib Shack.

Frida Kahlo. Photo credit: Nickolas Muray

Ongoing

The Atlanta Film Festival offers 10 days of programming (March 15-24, 2013) for all the cinema junkies who need a fix (or merely a break from the cold wasteland known as March at the multiplex). Headquartered at the historic Plaza Theatre, the festival is overflowing with content from new feature films, documentaries and shorts to seminars on the business and craft of filmmaking, and meet-and-greets around town. For a quick guide to what’s retro at AFF this year, click here.

The Atlanta Preservation Center‘s 1oth annual Phoenix Flies offers more than 200 opportunities to tour or otherwise experience Atlanta’s mist significant historic buildings and sites, many of which are not regularly open to the public. Read our ATLRetro preview here.

Make a date with FRIDA AND DIEGO: PASSION, POLITICS AND PAINTING, a blockbuster special exhibition showcasing the works of one of art’s most famous couples, at The High Museum of Art through May 12.

EXTREME MAMMALS from sabertooth tiger skulls and wooly mammoth fur to contemporary creatures such as the duck-billed platypus invade Fernbank Museum of Natural History through August 18.

Learn about  a different side to the third American president and Constitution author in the Really Retro special exhibition Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: How the Word is Passed Down at the Atlanta History Center through July 7.

Every Tuesday and Thursday night is Retro Cinema at Movie Tavern. Check out classic movies on the big screen weekly at 7:30 p.m.