ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

This Week in Retro Atlanta is the Kat’s Meow! Come see all the shakin’ shenanigans we’ve found for you! From honkytonk hootenannies to rockin’ garage, glam ‘n’ punk, we’ve got you covered!

Monday, March 13

Rock out with the Crocodiles, AJ Davila, Sash the Bash and Low Valley Hearts at The Earl! Gets some rockin’ soul with the Devon Allman Band at City Winery! Get folksy with the Riverside Joyride, Brad Parsons and Jack’s River Band at Smith’s Olde Bar! 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!” Skye Paige, “Queen of Slide Guitar” rocks out at the Little Vinyl Lounge! Blues it up with Bill Sheffield at Blind Willie’s! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack as they dish out The Pork Bellys and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ!

Tuesday, March 14

Shimmy ‘n’ shake it up as Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and her burly-Q gals of Syrens of the South spring your fling with their Tease Tuesday Burlesque: Spring Fling! event, shakin’ it up at the Red Light Café! Get down with Raul Midon at City Winery! Glam it up and spend the night with Bryan Ferry and Judith Owen at the Tabernacle! Rock on down to The Earl for a night with Pony League, Motel Radio and the High Divers! Make your way to Philips Arena for a Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience featuring Ramin Djawadi! Get down and dirty with Gray & The Bad Boys at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Laugh it up with Perfect Strangers Improv Perfect Strangers & Friends event! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s every Tuesday! Eric Sommer dishes out the blues at Blind Willie’s! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with their Downtown Tuesday Night Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more!  Or come down to the Little Vinyl Lounge for Kenny’s Record Club featuring Kenny Howes dishin’ out The Pretenders’ Debut Album! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, March 15

Get old-timey and folk it up with Saw Black, Ben Trickey, John Vournakis and Lebo Jenkins at 529! Spend the night with Kevn Kinney (Drivin’ n Cryin’) at Eddie’s Attic! Rock out with Martin Barre at Smith’s Olde Bar! Catch a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) at Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) at 7:15pm! Vinyl dishes out a night of folksy tunes with Paper Bird! Groove on down to The Star Bar for Romeo Cologne’s Granny Panty Hootenanny with DJ Quasi Mandisco! The Hollidays deliver a night of rhythm ‘n’ soul and rock ‘n’ roll at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Bluegrass it up at The Vista Room with The Vista Stringband! Get down with Bob Page at Blind Willie’s! Jazz it up at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! St. James Live! delivers their Hump Days Blues night, getting classic blues-style every Wednesday! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, March 16

Spook it up and rock out with Weird Omen, Kool Kat Rod Hamdallah, Nate & The Nightmares and Deadly Lo-Fi at The Star Bar! Get old-timey and bluegrass it up with The Dustbowl Revival and The John Stickley Trio at The Earl! Or catch the Georgia Mountain String Band and City Hotel at Eddie’s Attic! It’s a hootenanny and a half at The Vista Room with Kool Kat Col. Bruce Hampton & the Madrid Express! Spend the night with Regina Spektor at the Tabernacle! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so get swanky with Bogey & the Viceroy at Trader Vic’s and throw back a couple cocktails! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! 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! Get the rockin’ blues with The Cazanovas at Blind Willie’s! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! And as always, boogie down at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, March 17

Rock on down to The Star Bar for their St. Pat’s Jerzfest Day 1 featuring a hellacious night with The Stacktone Slims, Night Terrors, The Crush and The Unsatisfied and more! Get your bizarre circus side-show fix at the Dixie Tavern with the Southern Fried Rock ‘n’ Roll Show featuring Captain & Maybelle, Bigfoot, Kool Kat the Casket Creatures and more! Get your ‘60s and ‘70s rock fix with The Rainmen and Kitten Fontaine at Avondale Towne Cinema! Jamie Laval dishes out a night of Irish folk at the Crimson Moon Café! Stomp on down to Eddie’s Attic for a night with Antigone Rising and Mike Farris! Jazz it up with David Potter at the High Museum! Rock out folk-style with The Mulligan Brothers at the Red Clay Theatre! Get the old-time Delta blues at the Red Light Café with the Steel City Jug Slammers, The Brookses and Moses Nesh! The Vista Room gets down with a night of Chicago/Delta blues with The Breeze Kings! Make your way to the Fox Theatre for their presentation of “ANNIE” through March 19! Blind Willie’s St. Patty’s it up with Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck & the Atlanta Horns! Blues it up with Mr. Chapman’s Quarterly Review at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get the blues with Stoney Brooks at the Northside Tavern! 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 18

Honkytonk on down to the Avondale Towne Cinema for a night with The Western Sizzlers, Skye Paige and Donnie Picou! Day 2 of The Star Bar’s St. Pat’s Jerzfest cow punks it up with Nine Pound Hammer, Crank County Daredevils, Bad Spell, Dusty Booze & The Baby Haters, JJ & The Hustlers and more! Boogie woogie on down to the Northside Tavern’s Chicken Raid 2017 featuring Beverly “Guitar” Watkins, Bill Sheffield, Steve “The Blues Dude”, Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck, Robert Lee Coleman, the Wasted Potential Brass Band, Roy Lee Johnson, Chickens and Pigs, Essie Mae Brooks, Mandi Strachota, Cool John Ferguson, Albert White and more! Glam it up with the BadAsh All Star Team’s David Bowie Jam at the Red Light Café! Make your way to The Space’s (A Movement Arts Studio) Movie Night featuring four themed acts based on Rob Reiner’s classic, THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987), followed by a screening of the film! Cabaret it up at the Shakespeare Tavern with Sex Ed Burlesque, presented by Bettie Bullet! ATL Collective gets down with the Beastie Boys’ “LICENSED TO ILL” at the Buckhead Theatre! Stomp on down to the Crimson Moon Café for a night with Michelle Malone and Antigone Rising! It’s a night of old-time rockabilly and country with Roxie Watson and Patrick Davis at Eddie’s Attic! Rock out with At the Drive In at the Tabernacle! Get funky with the Naughty Professor at Terminal West! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack dishes out a night of outlaw blues with Blue Roads! Get the blues with Jarekus Singleton at Blind Willie’s! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, March 19

Day 2 of the Northside Tavern’s Chicken Raid 2017 gets down with Essie Mae Brooks, the Radio Ramblers, Skye Paige, Nate Nelson, Swami Gone Bananas, Lola, Eddie Tigner, The Rockaholics, Uncle Sugar and more! Blues it up with 10,000 Pontiacs at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Ongoing

Dad’s Garage’s Big Boozy Nerdy Game Night brings out the kid in you, every first Monday of the month at 7pm! 

Union EAV rocks out with their Punk Rock Karaoke ATL, and every last Tuesday of the month!

Geek it up at My Parents’ Basement with their weekly Tuesday night Nerd Trivia at 8pm!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Filling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the 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!

Get your reggae fix with Rub-A-Dub gettin’ down at WildPitch Music Hall, every second Sunday of the month!

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.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Hey kiddies! This week in ATLRetro is the Kat’s MEOW! Check out all the swell shenanigans we’ve found just for you!

Monday, March 6

Catch a screening of Howard Hawks’ HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940) at the Alpharetta Branch Library at 10:30am! Get your Americana fix with Robert Ellis and Courtney Hartman at City Winery! Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month! Skye Paige, “Queen of Slide Guitar” rocks out at the Little Vinyl Lounge! Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues at Blind Willie’s! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack as they dish out The Pork Bellys and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ!

Tuesday, March 7

Rock out with Flatfoot 56 and Mickey Rickshaw at The Earl! Folk it up with Tim O’Brien at Eddie’s Attic! Get down and dirty with Gray & The Bad Boys at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get your traditional Celtic folk fix with The Chieftains at Atlanta Symphony Hall! Thundercat dishes out a rockin’ show at Terminal West with Zack Fox! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s every Tuesday! Make your way to 529 for a night with Walker Lukens! Landmark Midtown Art Cinema kills it with their Noir Film Classics Series with a screening of Ridley Scott’s BLADE RUNNER (The Final Cut) (1982) at 7pm! Or make your way to the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern for their screening of Ethan/Joel Coen’s classic, RAISING ARIZONA (1987) during their “Classic Films on the Big Screen” series at 7:30pm! Blues it up with Grant Reynolds at Blind Willie’s! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with their Downtown Tuesday Night Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, March 8

Punk out horror-style with Voodoo Glow Skulls, Burns Like Fire and Kool Kats The Casket Creatures at The Star Bar! Catch a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s FULL METAL JACKET (1987) at Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) at 7:15pm! Catch a screening of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’ ALL ABOUT EVE (1950) at theatres across Atlanta (2pm/7pm) [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville)]; Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow)! Get some classic soul ‘n’ funk with Nick & The Grooves at Avondale Towne Cinema! Dan Baird & Homemade Sin rock out at The Earl! The Hollidays deliver a night of rhythm ‘n’ soul and rock ‘n’ roll at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Bluegrass it up at The Vista Room with The Vista Stringband! Get down with the Cody Matlock Band at Blind Willie’s! Get Victorian retro at Liquid Sky with Girls Shooting Girls: Victorian Tea Party, hosted by Marilyn Chen Photography! Jazz it up at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! St. James Live! delivers their Hump Days Blues night, getting classic blues-style every Wednesday! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, March 9

Honkytonk it up with Dwight Yoakam and The Whiskey Gentry at the Buckhead Theatre! Cold Hard Cash pays tribute to “The Man In Black” at City Winery! Make your way to the Fox Theatre for a night with “The King” during their presentation of Elvis Lives! Psyche rock out with Shadow Band, Weird Sin and Little Rituals at 529! Make yoru way to Cobb Energy Center for a night with Garrison Keillor! Crimson Moon Café dishes out their Blues Jam Session! Funk it up with Big Sam’s Funky Nation at Terminal West! It’s a night reminiscent of ‘70s rock at Venkman’s with Valley Queen! Get jazzy with Selina Albright at Suite Food Lounge! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so get swanky with Bogey & the Viceroy at Trader Vic’s and throw back a couple cocktails! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! 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! Stomp on down to Blind Willie’s for a night with Heather Luttrell! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! And as always, boogie down at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, March 10

Head on down the Atlanta Highway to Criminal Records for an Artist Signing and meet ‘n’ greet with Cindy Wilson (B-52s), followed by her live performance at Venkman’s! It’s a night of rockin’ tributes with The Ballbreakers (all-female AC/DC tribute), The Cherry Bomb (Joan Jett tribute) and Sash the Bash at Smith’s Olde Bar! Get swanky with Bogey & the Viceroy at The Vista Room! Catch Communist Daughter at the Masquerade! Get criminal with a prohibition pandemonium at SCADShow’s screening of Brian De Palma’s THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987) at 7pm! It’s a night of naughty magic at the Buckhead Theatre with The Naked Magicians! Spend the night with Sandra Bernhard at City Winery! Get your garage rock fix with Deep Sea Diver, Shantih Shantih and Oak House at The Earl! Jimmy Webb dishes out a night of old-time country at Eddie’s Attic! Blues it up with Brown Dog at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Rock out at The Star Bar with Highriders, Skin Jobs and Black Cat Rising! Stomp on down to Terminal West for a night with Son Volt! Bluegrass it up with The Steeldrivers at the Variety Playhouse! Get the blues with Sandra Hall & The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! Get old-school at the Northside Tavern with Albert White! Jam it up with the Jerry Garcia Cover Band at Aisle 5! 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 11

Hey kiddies of all ages! Joelanta & The Great Toy Con 2017 invades the Atlanta Marriott Century Center for 2 days only, through March 12! If you love vintage toys, stop-motion animation, comics, cosplay, pop culture and more, you won’t want to miss this two-day toy extravaganza including vendors and celebrity guests! Surf on down to Kavarna for Kool Kat Chad Shivers’ Southern Surf Stomp! featuring Gemini 13, Forbidden Waves and The 19 Hands! Get old-school with a night of Taj Mahal at City Winery! Stomp on down to Avondale Towne Cinema for a night with Jackson County Line and Shadowlands! Folk rock it up with Livingston Taylor at Eddie’s Attic! Spend the night with Norah Jones at the Fox Theatre! You won’t want to miss Venkman’s Chicken Pickin’ Brunch with Banjolicious, followed by Smithsonian that night performing “Hatful of Hollow”! Get some soul with Lee Fields & The Expressions at Terminal West! Make your way to The Earl Smith Strand Theatre as the Georgia Players Guild pays tribute to Creedance Clearwater Revival and Three Dog Night! Get some rockin’ soul with Diane Durrett and Soul Suga at The Vista Room! Boogie on down to Amsterdam Atlanta for Kool Kat VJ Anthony’s 80s New Wave Music Video Dance Party: PBS Edition! It’s an encore night of naughty magic at the Buckhead Theatre with The Naked Magicians! Get some soul with Courtney Daly at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Folk it up with Ellis Paul at the Red Clay Theatre! It’s a night of cosmic boogie with Parker Smith & The Bandwidth, Station 7 and Captain & The Kid at Smith’s Olde Bar! Shimmy on down to the Red Light Café for Sadie Hawkins’ The Gentlemen’s Quarterly! Blues on down to Blind Willie’s for a night with House Rocker Johnson & The Shadows! Get some soul with Grant Green, Jr. at the Northside Tavern! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, March 12

It’s day 2 and your last chance to experience the Joelanta & The Great Toy Con 2017 at the Atlanta Marriott Century Center! Catch Celtic Woman at Cobb Energy Center! Or get your Celtic folk rock fix with The Buddy O’Reilly Band at Eddie’s Attic! Get your reggae fix with Rub-A-Dub gettin’ down at WildPitch Music Hall, every second Sunday of the month! Get down with Madeleine Peyroux and Rickie Lee Jones at the Variety Playhouse! Blues it up with 10,000 Pontiacs at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! And get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar!

Ongoing

Dad’s Garage’s Big Boozy Nerdy Game Night brings out the kid in you, every first Monday of the month at 7pm!

Union EAV rocks out with their Punk Rock Karaoke ATL, and every last Tuesday of the month!

Geek it up at My Parents’ Basement with their weekly Tuesday night Nerd Trivia at 8pm!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Filling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the 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!

Get your reggae fix with Rub-A-Dub gettin’ down at WildPitch Music Hall, every second Sunday of the month!

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.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Take a peek at what we’ve dug up for you This Week in ATLRetro!

Monday, February 27

Make your way to the Tabernacle for Sting’s 57th and 9th Tour! Catch a screening of Billy Wilder’s DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) at the Alpharetta Branch Library at 10:30am! Get some soul with Lake Street Dive and Joey Dosik at the Variety Playhouse! Brandon Reeves dishes out a night of roots ‘n’ soul at Blind Willie’s! 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!” Skye Paige, “Queen of Slide Guitar” rocks out at the Little Vinyl Lounge! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a side of Dry White Toast and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ!

Tuesday, February 28

Cult writer Joe R. Lansdale signs his newest release in his HAP AND LEONARD series, RUSTY PUPPY, at Eagle Eye Books at 7pm! Get your circus shenanigan fix at the Red Light Café with the Tinderbox Circus Sideshow and more! Make your way to Blind Willie’s for Mardi Gras with Bob Page! Party it up with a Fat Tuesday Extravaganza at The Vista Room! Landmark Midtown Art Cinema kills it with their Noir Film Classics Series with a screening of Roman Polanski’s CHINATOWN (1974) at 7pm! Rock out with Agent Orange, Guttermouth, The Queers and Atom Age at The Earl! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with their Downtown Tuesday Night Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! Or come down to the Little Vinyl Lounge for Kenny’s Record Club featuring Kenny Howes dishin’ out Ringo Starr’s “Blast From Your Past”! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, March 1

Grab your favorite droogs and catch a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) at Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) at 7:15pm! Make your way to the Variety Playhouse for the Southern Soul Assembly, featuring JJ Grey, Luther Dickinson, Anders Osborne and Marc Broussard! Spend the evening with Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge at The Earl! Bluegrass it up at The Vista Room with The Vista Stringband! Make your way to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with the Big Mean Sound Machine and the 4th Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra! Make your way to Emory Cinematheque’s screening of Anthony Mann’s MEN IN WAR (1957) at 7:30pm as part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive Festival of Preservation Tour! Jazz it up at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! The Star Bar gets down with their Okie Dokie Karaoke, every Wednesday at 9pm! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! St. James Live! delivers their Hump Days Blues night, getting classic blues-style every Wednesday! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, March 2

Get funkadelic with George Clinton & P-Funk with Gurufish at the Buckhead Theatre! Cineprov returns to The Plaza Theater and kills it with an undead riffing of George A. Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) at 7:45pm! Rock on down to The Earl for a night with JD McPherson! Make your way to Venkman’s for a night with Yacht Rock Revue performing The Beatles’ “Abbey Road”! Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck & the Piedmont Playboys get down at Eddie’s Attic! Stomp on down to the Red Light Café for their Bluegrass Pickin’ Party! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a couple cocktails! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! 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! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! And as always, boogie down at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, March 3

Get criminal at SCADShow’s screening of Martin Scorsese’s GOODFELLAS (1990) at 7pm! Folk it up with Cory Branan and Ben Trickey at The Earl! It’s R.E.M. Night at Eddie’s Attic! Eighties it up with Saved by the Band at Venkman’s! Get artsy at the High Museum with “A Curatorial Conversation on Cross Country: The Power of Place in American Art, 1915-1950” at 7pm! Celebrate 21 years of rock with PARADOCS at The Earl Smith Strand Theatre! Time-warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens at The Plaza Theater’s Rocky Horror Pub Crawl 2, featuring a costume contest, a screening of  Jim Sharman’s THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) and more, at 7pm! The Masquerade gets mischievous and metal with Suicidal Tendencies, Crowbar and Havok! Get bizarre with filmmaker Kool Kat Brian Lonano and Video Video Nasty’s “Sad Stonewash!” event at JavaVino! Make your way to the Red Light Café for a night with Greg Presmanes!

Saturday, March 4

Honkytonk it up with Kool Kat Caroline & The Ramblers and Kool Kat Spike Fullerton with the Ghost Riders Car Club at Kavarna! That 1 Guy dishes out a night of future funk ‘n’ experimental jazzy goodness all in a one-man-band at Eddie’s Attic! Get dark and rock out with The Saturation, James Hall & The Steady Wicked and Shadowland at The Star Bar! Glam it up with PINUPS and The Backyardbirds at Avondale Towne Cinema! Rock out with Southside Johnny & Asbury Jukes at the Buckhead Theatre! Rock out at The Earl with Clashinista (Clash tribute), Cadillac Jones and Jupiter Watts! The Park Tavern dishes out a full day of the Big Easy with their Oyster Crawfish Festival featuring live tunes by Kool Kat Fred Leblanc with Cowboy Mouth, Gurufish and the Atlanta Brass Connection! Get some New Orleans funk with The Mar-Tans at Venkman’s! Get rootsy with Delta Moon at The Vista Room! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, March 5

Catch a screening of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’ ALL ABOUT EVE (1950) at theatres across Atlanta (2pm/7pm) [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville)]; Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow)! Get hellacious and rock out with Overkill at the Variety Playhouse! Get folksy with Mouths of Babes at Eddie’s Attic! And get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar!

Ongoing

Get haunted Cameron Mackintosh’s new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” at the Fox Theatre, running through March 5! (LAST CHANCE!)

Dad’s Garage’s Big Boozy Nerdy Game Night brings out the kid in you, every first Monday of the month at 7pm!

Union EAV rocks out with their Punk Rock Karaoke ATL, and every last Tuesday of the month!

Geek it up at My Parents’ Basement with their weekly Tuesday night Nerd Trivia at 8pm!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Filling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the 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.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

The last time we caught up with the ever-busy Atlanta filmmaker Bret Wood was before the 2014 Atlanta Film Festival screening of THE UNWANTED, his contemporary take on Sheridan Le Fanu’s vampire novella “Carmilla.”  Bret is at it again with his current independent cinematic endeavor, THOSE WHO DESERVE TO DIE (TWD2D), a loose modern-day adaptation of Thomas de Quincey’s novella “The Avenger.” Fueled by visions of ‘60s gialli.” TWD2D is a thriller that “subverts the formula of the revenge film,” following its “hero” as he seeks gruesome justice. According to its official description: “Goaded by the cold-hearted spirit of his undead 10-year-old sister Berenice, Jonathan wades into ever-deepening, ethically muddier water—for their plan is to not just punish the guilty, but extinguish their bloodlines entirely.” The film stars Joe Sykes [V/H/S (2012); THE LITTLE DEATH (2010)], Alice Lewis (first starring role) and Rachel Frawley. While Bret has personally funded all of his prior film projects, this ghastly twist of a revenge story is being partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign chock full of enticing perks, including copies of the film upon its release to video (Fall 2018). Be a part of bloody fantastic film history and snatch up a killer perk or two via the crowd-sourcing campaign available through February 25! Check out the full range of rewards here!

A rare and obscure film connoisseur, Bret regularly digs deep into the historic cinematic landscape through his enviable day-job as Vice President of Special Projects with Kino Lorber. On the heels of receiving the 2016 Film Heritage Award from the National Society of Film Critics for his PIONEERS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN CINEMA (2016) collection, he dove right into his next restoration project, PIONEERS: FIRST WOMEN FILMMAKERS, promising to expose viewers to lesser known, yet significant female film pioneers.

ATLRetro caught up with Bret for a quick rundown on THOSE WHO DESERVE TO DIE, his devotion to film history’s weirdest and wackiest; and why going with crowd-funding made sense for this project! While you’re takin’ a gander at our little Q&A, why not take a sinister peek at the teaser trailer for TWD2D here.

ATLRetro: The last time ATLRETRO caught up with you was with your take on “Carmilla,” THE UNWANTED (2014). And now we see you’re diving head first into Thomas de Quincey’s novella “The Avenger” with your newest film adventure, THOSE WHO DESERVE TO DIE. Why “The Avenger” and why adaptations of classic literature?

Bret Wood: I’m a voracious reader, and I usually follow some thread of ideas from one book to another rather than just randomly choosing books from a shelf. It’s a great way of discovering writers I wasn’t previously familiar with. At the time I discovered “The Avenger,” I had been reading a lot of Gothic novels — specifically pseudo-memoirs from a skewed perspective — things like de Quincey’s CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM EATER, Charles Maturin’s MELMOTH THE WANDERER and James Hogg’s THE PRIVATE MEMOIRS AND CONFESSIONS OF A JUSTIFIED SINNER. I think it was Joris-Karl Huysmans’s THE DAMNED (LA-BAS) that started me on this whole journey. I like this era of literature because it’s the kind of thing not many other people are reading, and it’s all in the public domain, so if I do find a story that would work well as a film, it’s mine for the taking. There’s nothing worse than discovering a story that would make an incredible film, but knowing it would be impossible to clear the rights (there’s a William Lindsay Gresham [NIGHTMARE ALLEY] story I’m dying to adapt.)

And with pre-1900 books like these, I’m really adapting the spirit of the work, not the plot. As THE UNWANTED bears little physical resemblance to “Carmilla,” THOSE WHO DESERVE TO DIE does not replicate the plot of “The Avenger.” But hopefully both of them capture the emotional essence of what makes both of those stories so compelling, and so troubling.

(l-r) Bret Wood, Rachel Frawley

Why a Kickstarter for THOSE WHO DESERVE TO DIE? What are the advantages of taking the crowd-sourcing route?

Previously I’ve self-funded all my films, but the cost of indie filmmaking in Atlanta has risen considerably since the arrival of Hollywood productions. It’s become more difficult to secure locations, and we have to compete with major studio productions for crew. Just a few years ago, when filmmaking opportunities were limited, there was an abundance of crew who were eager to take on labors of love in order to get experience and make the kind of connections they could build careers on. Now, everyone’s busy on well-paying projects, and it’s not fair for us to ask them to show up on their days off and work 10 to 12-hour days for the love of the art. Over the course of making TWD2D, we’ve assembled a terrific, very dedicated core crew, but I want to treat them fairly and not burn them out on independent production. We want to leave them willing to support the next grassroots project – to insure that this kind of filmmaking can continue in Atlanta.

There are several great things about crowd-funding. One is that it allows anyone to participate. And the size of the donation is less important than the knowledge that someone out there likes the idea of what you’re doing and wants you to see it through to completion. Another attribute of Kickstarter is that when people make a contribution, there are no strings attached. They are supporting the creation of your work without imposing conditions or restrictions upon the donation. As soon as artists accept money from an investor, they can’t help but begin to think of the film as a business and bear the responsibility of shaping the film into something that will become profitable. You can’t help it. That Hollywood mentality starts to creep in.

Joe Sykes as Jonathan

I’m not saying my vision is “pure” or that profitable films are somehow corrupt. But I am trying to make films from the gut – that evolve and find their own form through the process of collaborating with other artists. THOSE WHO DESERVE TO DIE is a film that emerges from the process of making a film. Just last week, two of the actors (Joe Sykes and Keith Brooks) helped me re-conceptualize a scene that was problematic, and we shot that sequence over the weekend. Likewise, we try to make sure the set is a place where new ideas are welcome, and we’re not just banging a punch list of predetermined shots.

You’ve put together some great bonuses for investors, ranging from special DVDs and Blu-rays to pass codes to stream your past films to posters and private screenings (Exciting!). What can folks looking to invest via Kickstarter expect to get when they back your film?

I think most people want to get a copy of the finished film, but for those who don’t want to wait the year-and-a-half it will probably take for TWD2D to be completed and then released on video, they can join us for the cast-and-crew screening, get copies of my previous work, two different styles of T-shirt, and I’ve dragged out a few things from my memorabilia closet, including a key prop from THE UNWANTED [Millarca’s severed head] and an original print by David Lynch for any big-money donors out there. Of course the greatest reward of all is the satisfaction of keeping truly independent film alive and well in Atlanta – and you get that even at the $5 pledge level.

Looks like many of your cast and crew are Atlantans or from the surrounding area, including yourself. What can you tell us about your cast/crew and why do you think it’s important to work with local talent?

With Atlanta being overwhelmed with studio production, I think it’s more important than ever that indie film projects ORIGINATE locally. The studios have come here for the tax breaks but quickly discovered what a rich and deep pool of filmmaking talent resides here. I don’t think anyone expected the Georgia film industry to expand the way it has — and you can’t chalk that all up to tax incentives. The problem is that the writers/directors/leading actors of these projects are still almost exclusively brought in from the West Coast. The studios and networks don’t see this as a place where ideas are originated and projects germinated. The most successful content-originators in Atlanta are self-starters — people like Will Packer and Tyler Perry. And we need more filmmakers like that — who are crafting their own unique work, and not asking some corporate entity for permission to make films.

You’re a well-known local film historian, as Vice President of Special Projects with Kino Lorber, and have produced Blu-ray releases for the films of legendary directors Mario Bava, Stanley Kubrick, Jess Franco, D.W. Griffith and more! Which project was the most intriguing? In the grand scheme of things, why do you feel it is important to not only preserve film, but to share these works of art with the masses?

Just as I read books from another era, I’ve always loved watching films from the past. Part of it is my distaste for all things contemporary, but mostly it is the thrill of discovering something new. If you love cinema, then there is a whole universe out there waiting to be explored. And you can’t do it from the convenient portal of Netflix. You’ve got to get up off the couch and look for it yourself. And it’s exciting to go on a quest to track down obscure works by obscure filmmakers that only YOU truly understand and appreciate (or so it seems, until you discover there are others who share your passion for the odd and eclectic). And that process opens up social opportunities and enables you to create new friendships (both real and virtual). Go over to Videodrome and strike up a conversation with whoever’s on duty — you’ll see what I mean. That’s really a snapshot of who I am and how I defined myself during my youth.

Alice Lewis

I try to hold on to that sense of discovery in my day job, as I ferret out lesser-known films and give them the best possible presentation so that they’ll be out there for other cineastes to discover. I produce DVDs/Blu-rays of the classics, but I’m also allowed to slip into the release schedule some truly strange and fascinating films that aren’t on most people’s cultural radar; things like the silent-era drug film THE DEVIL’S NEEDLE, the satanic soft-core film THE LAST STEP DOWN, the 3-D film A*P*E, the oddball noir THE CHASE. I’ve got a full plate for 2017 and look forward to introducing some strange new flavors to people’s cinematic palate.

On the heels of receiving the 2016 Film Heritage Award from the National Society of Film Critics for your PIONEERS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN CINEMA (2016) collection, you’ve jumped right into PIONEERS: FIRST WOMEN FILMMAKERS. Can you tell our readers a little about this project?

PIONEERS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN CINEMA succeeded beyond our expectations, and I really felt as though I had helped consolidate and publish a hugely important chapter of American film history. It was unique in that it wasn’t just a “greatest hits” of early black cinema; it explored both the cornerstones of the movement and the virtually unknown work. We included lesser-known films. We included incomplete films. We included films so eroded by nitrate decomposition that they are almost incomprehensible. But these films are important nonetheless. They are the mortar that fills in the cracks of the bricks of black film history. And they would never be released under ordinary economic circumstances. PIONEERS was funded by a Kickstarter campaign and the $50,000+ that we raised afforded me an unprecedented amount of creative freedom — resulting in a collection of films that would otherwise have been impossible, or at least commercially unviable.

Fortunately, I was able to maintain the momentum, launch a second KS campaign, and am now knee-deep in producing PIONEERS: FIRST WOMEN FILMMAKERS, which focuses specifically on women directors of the American film industry in the silent era. Our aim is specific because, as with the first PIONEERS, we didn’t want to make this a “greatest hits” collection [Lois Weber, Alice Guy-Blaché]. We want to show you the works you’ve never seen, and expose you to the filmmakers you’ve never heard of [Gene Gauntier, Angela Murray Gibson, Julia Crawford Ivers, Ida May Park, Marion E. Wong]. And by focusing on American silents, we’re able to tell a fascinating – and ultimately depressing – story of how women were pushed out of the director’s chair and into support roles within the Hollywood studio system.

Can you tell our readers how you got into film preservation and filmmaking?

After meeting film historian Dennis Doros when he came to speak at a screening at the University of Tennessee (where I was a student), I was offered a job at the film/video distributor Kino International (now Kino Lorber) in 1987. I started out doing telephone sales for near-poverty wages but was just happy to be working for a company with impeccable taste in its library of films. As the years passed, I migrated away from sales – which I was never very good at – into design work, eventually becoming the Art Director. I gradually accumulated a knowledge of post-production, film mastering, digital restoration, editing, and became Kino’s primary producer of archival projects. Today, the company is much larger, and I’m one of several producers, but I’m still the archival classics guy. And while I have more freedom in acquiring films and negotiating with the archives and licensors, I’m still a very hands-on producer, writing liner notes, designing packaging, supervising film restorations, cutting trailers. Every day is something different (today I get to work on the Republic serial DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE and Josef von Sternberg’s ANATAHAN) and that’s what I love about the job.

You seem to be drawn to exploitation films, with your preservation projects, your documentaries [HELL’S HIGHWAY] and your writing projects [“FORBIDDEN FRUIT: THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE EXPLOITATION FILM” and “MARIHUANA, MOTHERHOOD, AND MADNESS”]. What is the magnetizing power of exploitation flicks? And which exploitation film is a definite must-see for our readers?  Yes, we’re forcing you to choose just one.

(l-r) Alice Lewis, Joe Sykes

Funny you should bring these up. I’m just about to close a deal with Something Weird Video for Kino Lorber to revive their “Roadshow Rarities” collection and carry on the tradition that Mike Vraney began with his VHS releases of the early 1990s. We’re going to perform 2K restorations, launch theatrical re-releases of certain titles, and eventually release them on Blu-ray. What I love is that these films, routinely dismissed a kitschy and naive – that was the whole gist of New Line’s marketing of REEFER MADNESS on the midnight movie circuit in the 1970s – are actually much smarter than we give them credit for. They are playful films made by clever filmmakers who figured out a way to game the system, bypassing the censor boards, defying the studio distribution system, and lining their pockets with cash. They pretended to make films to educate the masses on the dangers of drug addiction, venereal diseases, bestiality, polygamy, and other social problems, but were actually making outrageous films that indulged America’s appetites for these forbidden vices. We don’t think of the 1930s and 1940s as a heyday of indie cinema, but it was, and there is still much to be learned from these films.

A favorite? Definitely MANIAC (1934). It is a psychological horror film made by self-taught husband-and-wife filmmakers Dwain Esper and Hildagarde Stadie Esper that plays like a true crime surrealist art film with dashes of Edgar Allan Poe.

Can you give us five things you’re into at the moment that we should be watching right now—directors or movies, past or present, well-known or obscure.

I don’t want others to rush out and discover them — these are MY current fascinations: 1) the novels of Peter Ackroyd;  2) the music of Jacques Brel; 3) any film by Michael Haneke; 4) Bill Gunn’s 1973 film GANJA AND HESS; and 5) Rouben Mamoulian’s APPLAUSE (1929). If you are determined to watch a recent film, I recommend THE LOBSTER and UNDER THE SKIN.

Getting back to why we’re here chatting you up, THOSE WHO DESERVE TO DIE and the film’s Kickstarter campaign! Without giving too much away, what can you tell our readers about the film and when they can expect to catch it on the big screen?

THOSE WHO DESERVE TO DIE is a revenge story with a supernatural twist. It follows a war hero [Joe Sykes] who returns to his home town to avenge the death of his family guided and goaded by the spirit of his dead sister, played by Alice Lewis. When he meets a social worker [Rachel Frawley] who treats PTSD and war-related “moral injury,” the character begins to question the purpose of this campaign of gruesome violence, and his whole quest for justice begins to unravel into chaos. We hope to finish photography in late spring, and have a cast-and-crew screening around the end of the year. Festival screenings should begin happening in Spring 2018, with a home video release in Fall 2018.

The Kickstarter campaign ends Saturday February 25, so it’s not too late to score a T-shirt or give us that welcome boost of confidence that comes with ANY donation to the cause! Check it out here!

All photos courtesy of Bret Wood and are used with permission.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Come see what’s shakin’ in ATLRetro This Week!

Monday, February 20

Get folksy with Devendra Banhart at Terminal West! Shimmy on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for Sadie Hawkins’ Electric Glitterland Rock ‘n’ Roll Cabaret with Kool Kat Ursula Undress, Nikki Nuke’m and more (upstairs)! Or honkytonk on downstairs for a night with Mike & the Moonpies and the Andrea Colburn Band! Get some soul with Nick Rosen at City Winery! Get the blues with Matthew Pendrick at Blind Willie’s! Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month! Skye Paige, “Queen of Slide Guitar” rocks out at the Little Vinyl Lounge! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a side of Dry White Toast and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ!

Tuesday, February 21

Get some rockin’ garage soul with our Kool Kat of the Week Emily Robb and Louie Louie with A Drug Called Tradition at The Earl! Jazz it up with legendary crooner Tony Bennett at Atlanta Symphony Hall! Landmark Midtown Art Cinema kills it with their Noir Film Classics Series with a screening of John Huston’s THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950) at 7pm! It’s a night of old-fashioned radio show goodness with The Rookery Radio Hour at the Highland Inn Ballroom & Lounge at 8pm! The hills are alive at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern with a screening of Robert Wise’s classic, THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965) during their “Classic Films on the Big Screen” series at 7:30pm! Rock out with Eddie Rascal, A Sunday Fire, Like Mike and Holders at 529! Make your way to Eddie’s Attic for a night with Muddy Magnolias! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s every Tuesday! The Nick Johnson Trio gets down at Blind Willie’s! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with their Downtown Tuesday Night Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! Or come down to the Little Vinyl Lounge for Kenny’s Record Club featuring Kenny Howes dishin’ out George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass”! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, February 22

Rock on down to City Winery for a night with Candlebox! Cameron Mackintosh’s new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” comes to the Fox Theatre as part of the new North American Tour, haunting through March 5! Funk it up with a screening of Jason Orr’s DIARY OF A DECADE: THE STORY OF A MOVEMENT (2012) at The Plaza Theater! The hills are alive at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern with an encore screening of Robert Wise’s classic, THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965) during their “Classic Films on the Big Screen” series at 7:30pm! Or catch a screening of Vincente Minnelli’s FATHER OF THE BRIDE (1950) at Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) at 7:15pm! Rock out with The Cadillac Three and The Quaker City Night Hawks at the Variety Playhouse! Get some bluesy southern soul with Kool Kat Scott Glazer’s Mojo Dojo at Blind Willie’s! Get horrified with a deadly double feature with Emory Cinematheque’s screening of Victor Halperin’s WHITE ZOMBIE (1932) and John H. Auer’s THE CRIMES OF DR. CRESPI (1935) at 7:30pm as part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive Festival of Preservation Tour! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack dishes out a night of the blues with Frankie’s Blues Mission! Jazz it up at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! The Star Bar gets down with their Okie Dokie Karaoke, every Wednesday at 9pm! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! St. James Live! delivers their Hump Days Blues night, getting classic blues-style every Wednesday! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, February 23

Rock out at 529 with the Holy Ghost Tent Revival, The Go Rounds and Slow Parade! It’s a night of surfy rock ‘n’ pop at The Earl with Small Reactions, Art School Jocks and Fake Flowers! Get hellacious with Joe Buck (Hank III) and Sash the Bash at The Star Bar! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so get funky and hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a night with The Mar-Tans! Rock out with Sick Of It All, Murphy’s Law and Death Card at the Masquerade! Get down with This Way to the Egress and Eli August and the Abandoned Buildings! You won’t want to miss the “Modern Day Buddy Holly” Girls, Guns & Glory, Rachel Rowland and Kira Annalise & The Trainwrecks at Smith’s Olde Bar! It’s a hootenanny and a half at The Vista Room with Kool Kat Col. Bruce Hampton & the Madrid Express! Catch a free screening of Jim Henson’s LABYRINTH (1986) at Venkman’s at 9:15pm! Get down and dirty with Sandra Hall & The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! 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! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! And as always, boogie down at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, February 24

For those who prefer alternate history to reality and Victorian-era lifestyles and fantasy, travel back to the 60s (1960s, 1860s, 1760s and more!) during this year’s 3-day event (Feb. 24-26), AnachroCon 2017, celebrating historical reenactments, Steampunk, science-fiction, classic horror, literature, fashion and a cornucopia of indulgences!  So, catch a train and head on over to the Atlanta Marriott Century Center, where you’ll catch Guest of Honor, author Christopher Stasheff, performances by Dreaming Shadows (performing during the Psychedelic 60s Rock Show), The Gin Rebellion, Wasted Wine, informative panels discussing Steampunk as Victorian science-fiction, time travel, Gothic literature, vintage tales of terror (Lovecraft, Poe, Stoker), ghost stories and the classic monster flicks of Universal and Hammer and a vendors room chock full of goodies, including our pals at Horror in Clay (see our Shop Around feature here) and so much more! Boogie on down to The Heretic for RITUAL’s Steampunk Party!

It’s a night of intergalactic debauchery ‘n’ shenanigans with Kool Kat Sen. Artie Mondello, The Nude Party, The Ar-kaics, Wahya’s and Roadkill Debutante at The Star Bar! Videodrome (JavaDrome) continues their Frank Perry retrospective with a screening of PLAY IT AS IT LAYS (1972) at 8:30pm, with an introduction by Justin Bozung, Perry’s official biographer, and out soon-to-be Kool Kat of the Week! Come on out to Avondale Towne Cinema for A Sondheim Cabaret! Make your way to Gallery 992 for Kool Kat Andy Ditzler and Film Love Atlanta’s “Two Films by Horace Ove” featuring BALDWIN’S NIGGER (1969) and REGGAE (1971) at 8pm! Get festive and Mardi Gras it up at The Vista Room during Fare Thee Well Foundation’s 9th Annual Mardi Gras Ball featuring live tunes by String ‘n Bones, Electric Codpiece and Hoodoo Moon! Banjo it up with The Wooks and Little Country Giants at the Red Light Café! Make your way to The Earl for a two-night stand with the riotous ruckus that is Kool Kat Blair Crimmins and the Hookers (CD release) and the Jon Stickley Trio! Eighties it up with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade at Suburban Tap (Marietta)! Get down and dirty with Beverly “Guitar” Watkins at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Terminal West dishes out a night of vintage psychedelic disco fun with BoomBox! Get the blues with Tab Benoit at the Variety Playhouse! Get groovy and make your way to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with Disco Tendencies, The Orange Constant and Lagoons! Get the blues with Victor Wainwright at Blind Willie’s! Get funky New Orleans’ style during Zydefunk’s Annual King Cake Party at the Northside Tavern! 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, February 25

It’s day 2 of AnachroCon 2017, dishing out anything and everything Victorian, steampunk, the ‘60s and more! The Earl dishes out night two with the riotous ruckus that is Kool Kat Blair Crimmins and the Hookers (CD release) and the Banditos! Get your ‘70s vintage rock fix with Thelma & The Sleaze and M.O.T.O at The Star Bar! Get brassy with the Rebirth Brass Band in Heaven at the Masquerade! Or go to Hell and catch Save Ferris, Baby Baby and Burns Like Fire! Bluegrass it up at the Red Light Café with the Todd Prusin Experience and Void Luna! Make your way to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with Little Perks in Paradise, the Bridget Kelly Band and Tony Levitas & The Levitations! Folk rock it up at Vinyl with Frontier Ruckus! Get your classic rock fix with The Barbaric Gentlemen at The Vista Room! Make your way to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a night with The Vipers!  Blind Willie’s dishes out a night of blues with House Rocker Johnson & The Shadows! Stoney Brooks dishes out the blues at the Northside Tavern! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, February 26

Get squeaky clean with The Clermont Girls Bike & Car Wash at B3 Bar & Grill (Austell)! Folk it up with Arlo Guthrie at Atlanta Symphony Hall! Step right up folks! It’s day 3 and your last chance to experience the Victorian life and alternate history at AnachroCon 2017! Jackson County Line delivers a night of Americana at the Crimson Moon Café! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar! And blues it up with Dr. Dixon at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Ongoing

Get haunted Cameron Mackintosh’s new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” at the Fox Theatre, running through March 5!

Dad’s Garage’s Big Boozy Nerdy Game Night brings out the kid in you, every first Monday of the month at 7pm!

Union EAV rocks out with their Punk Rock Karaoke ATL, and every last Tuesday of the month!

Geek it up at My Parents’ Basement with their weekly Tuesday night Nerd Trivia at 8pm!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Filling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the 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.

Louie Louie, OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA. Photo credit: Cassie Cummins. Used with permission.

By Geoff Slade
Contributing Writer

Philadelphia foursome Louie Louie bring their rocking mix of throwback vocal harmonies and glorious post punk weirdness to The Earl on Tuesday Feb. 21.

Not too long ago, Emily Robb recruited two work friends and her sister (all three were first-time musicians) and formed Louie Louie. Their sound owes plenty to classic soul and garage rock bands of the ’60s, but the organ and layered production give the music an otherworldly delicacy that is something different. And those harmonies!

We caught up with Robb just before Louie Louie started the current tour that will bring them to Atlanta on Tuesday. (Click here for ticket info)

ATLRetro: Thanks for taking the time to chat with ATLRetro. It looks like Louie Louie just started a pretty serious East Coast tour. Are you on the road a lot?

Emily Robb: We haven’t done any significant touring for over a year, but we’ll be on the road a little this spring and probably summer.

Where are you originally from? Where’s home now?

My sister Jenna [drummer] and I are both originally from an island in Maine. Leslie [organist] is from Arizona and Emily E (bassist) is from outside of Philadelphia. We currently live within a few blocks of each other in Philly.

How long have you been playing music? What did you do before? Still have a day job?

When I was around 21, I started teaching myself guitar. My first experience being in a band – that wasn’t my grade school band – was in Montreal. Later I played in a band called Lantern for quite a while, as well as Myrrias which I’m currently still in. I wouldn’t call it a day job, but yes, I have to work other jobs still. I try to be very part-time at several different jobs so that it’s not difficult to take time off for touring.

How did Louie Louie come together? What inspired you to start a band?

I always wanted to form my own band, so about three years ago I asked my fellow waitresses and my sister if they wanted to start something with me. Originally I wanted lots of harmonies which is why I was excited to start the band with these women.

I know some folks get testy when asked how they settled upon a band’s name. I hope you are not one of them. I’d assume it comes from The Kingsman song (or maybe the Hot Chocolate song), but what do I know? Only that it is hard to Google you. So, why is your band named “Louie Louie”?

Yeah ,we’ve gotten many complaints about how difficult it is to Google us. I thought Richard Berry‘s song “Louie Louie“ was the perfect song – incredibly simple, three chords, the progression doesn’t even change between verse and chorus, it’s very open so you can do anything with it, and it’s not at all boring even though it’s repetitive. Also I liked the plurality of the name and the fact that it’s not gender-specific.  

I take it you don’t mind the comparisons to the classic all-female groups of the ’60s, as that is among the best pop music ever recorded. Are there any in particular you consider your favorites?

Of the ’60s groups, I think The Shangri-Las and Martha and the Vandellas might be my favorites. But I enjoy them all. 

Berry Gordy or Phil Spector?

That’s not a fair question! Recording/production-wise, I take a lot from both.

Who are some influences that may be less obvious?

I love Yoko Ono. I love Neil Young. Some of those cool Kinks songs like “Fancy“ and “Everybody Felt the Rain.” I love the Byrds. I’ve definitely taken a lot from all these bands even if it’s not obvious.

Photo credit: Kelly Kurteson. Used with permission.

Do you ever suspect that some of your younger fans may not be familiar with these groups? Does it matter?

I suppose a lot of them wouldn’t be, but in the end I don’t honestly think it matters. I teach music workshops for youths and I’ve introduced them to some of this ’60s soul and they’ve loved it! One of my classes chose to cover “Come See About Me” by Diana Ross and the Supremes after I played it for them.

Have you recorded anything? How can we hear it?

Louie Louie has a single out that was released on Hidden Volume Records and we just released our first full length on Born Losers Records. You can stream them on our bandcamp as well as all the normal streaming sights and you can order the vinyl LP from bornlosersrecords.bigcartel.com

What are you listening to these days?

To be honest, so much Neil Young lately.

I read in your bio that your drummer makes your stage outfits – They are pretty damn sharp, by the way! How important is this to the band’s style?

Yeah! It’s awesome to look sharp and weird and whatever else we look in our outfits! Also the fact that she makes them all by hand and they don’t exist anywhere else in the world makes me so happy.

Anything else I should be sure to mention?

We’ll have our records for sale at the show!

Thanks for your time, and we’ll see you Tuesday at The Earl.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Hey all you lovers and hep vintage rockin’ romantics! It’s a week of love and lust and romance, oh my! So, if you’re searching for that Funny Valentine or would prefer to forget the day, we have everything your wretched little heart could desire! So, come on out and take a peek at what ATLRetro has in store for you!

Monday, February 13

Catch a screening of Mark Rydell’s THE COWBOYS (1972) at the Alpharetta Branch Library at 10:30am! Blues it up with Marshall Ruffin and Lindsay Jarman at Eddie’s Attic! Get the cosmic blues with The Bumbs, Andrew Carter, and Saint Roosevelt at Smith’s Olde Bar! Get the blues with Bill Sheffield at Blind Willie’s! 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!” Skye Paige, “Queen of Slide Guitar” rocks out at the Little Vinyl Lounge! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a side of Dry White Toast and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ!

Tuesday, February 14

It’s St. Valentine’s Day folks and you know what that means! We’ve dug up a variety of rockin’ vintage shindigs taking place tonight, that we know will get your blood pumping and all set for that shot to the heart! Swing on by The Earl Smith Strand Theatre for Douglas Cameron and his 17-piece Big Band’s Fly Me to the Moon concert at 8pm! Venkman’s dishes out a Valentine’s Day Dinner featuring classical jazz with Le Grand Fromage and a Prix fixe menu by Executive Chef Nick Melvin, $65/person, begins at 5:30pm! Let Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and her burly-Q gals of Syrens of the South spice up your Valentine’s evening with their Tease Tuesday Burlesque: Hearts & Heartbreakers event, shakin’ it up at the Red Light Café! Wax poetic at Center Stage for their Passion & Poetry Valentine’s event featuring spoken word and Broadwayesque performances at 7pm! Or be a pair of star-crossed lovers as the Shakespeare Tavern performs their special Valentine’s production of “Romeo & Juliet” at 7:30pm! Laugh it up with Perfect Strangers Improv’s Perfect Strangers and Flying Giants event this Valentine’s Day at 8:30pm! Hula on over to Trader Vic’s and escape into the island atmosphere of love with their pre-fix Tropical Valentine’s Day Dinner, $60++. Grab your geeky guy or gal and make your way to Battle & Brew’s Valentine’s Day Dinner, featuring a Prix Fixe menu, $80/couple!

Landmark Midtown Art Cinema kills it with their Noir Film Classics Series with a screening of Alexander Mackendrick’s SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957) at 7pm! It’s an old-time pandemonium at 529 with Blood on the Harp, Coldheart Canyon and Kool Kat Caleb Warren & The Gents! Make your way to City Winery for an evening with Shawn Mullins! Rock on down to Atlanta Symphony Hall for a night with Yes! Get educated with Lauryn Hill at the Tabernacle! It’s a night of back porch folk rock with Jamestown Revival at Terminal West! Get the blues with Ross Pead & Friends at Front Page News (L5P)! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s every Tuesday! The Cody Matlock Band delivers a night of blues at Blind Willie’s! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with their Downtown Tuesday Night Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! Or come down to the Little Vinyl Lounge for Kenny’s Record Club featuring Kenny Howes dishin’ out Paul McCartney’s “ALL THE BEST”! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, February 15

Surf on down to The Earl for a hellacious night with Fiend Without A Face, Highriders and Dang Dang Dang! Rat Pack Now croons on down to the Red Clay Theatre, doors at 6:30pm! Celebrate the  60th Anniversary screening of Leo McCarey’s AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957) at theatres across Atlanta (2pm/7pm) [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville)]; Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow)! Stomp on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with Mahogany Marie & The 11th Hour Band! Get the West Coast/Chicago blues with The Electromatics at Blind Willie’s! Catch Emory Cinematheque’s screening of Douglas Sirk’s THE FIRST LEGION (1951) at 7:30pm as part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive Festival of Preservation Tour! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack dishes out a night of the blues with Frankie’s Blues Mission! Jazz it up at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! It’s as night of foot-stompin’ Americana with The BooHoo Ramblers at! The Star Bar gets down with their Okie Dokie Karaoke, every Wednesday at 9pm! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! St. James Live! delivers their Hump Days Blues night, getting classic blues-style every Wednesday! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, February 16

Rock out at The Earl with Kool Kat Ray Dafrico and His Band with Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a night with Kool Kat Joshua Longino and The Disapyramids! Doo-wop it up with Under the Streetlamp at the Buckhead Theatre! Rock out with The Trews and Whisky Dixie at Smith’s Olde Bar! New Age it up with Yanni at Atlanta Symphony Hall! Get funky with The Werks at the Terminal West! Get your Americana fix with Liz Brasher and the Georgia Mountain String Band at Venkman’s! The Red Light Café presents THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, a Valentine’s performance, benefitting One Billion Rising at 8pm! Get sweet and low down with Sweet Betty & The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! It’s a hootenanny and a half at with Kool Kat Col. Bruce Hampton & the Madrid Express at The Vista Room! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! 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! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! And as always, boogie down at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, February 17

It’s a weekend of mischief and mayhem at The Star Bar with their Hammerhead Fest 666! Night one brings you Lazer/Wulf, Order of the Owl, The Vaginas, Old Thrones, Dropout and Holy Quit! Funk it up with Voodoo Visionary’s Album Release Party with Little Raine Band and Opposite Box at Aisle 5! Gangster it up at SCADShow with a screening of Raoul Walsh’s WHITE HEAT (1949) at 7pm! Get old school and blues it up with Mac Arnold & The Plate Full O Blues Band at the Crimson Moon Café! Or get the Delta blues with Nathan Angelo at Eddie’s Attic! Get down and dirty with Beverly “Guitar” Watkins at the High Museum! It’s a night of rockin’ blues at the Red Clay Theatre with the Highbeams! Jam out with Dead Affect and Honeywood at Smith’s Olde Bar! Eighties it up with Members Only at Venkman’s! The Georgia Players Guild brings you Outlaws & Outlands paying tribute to Willie Nelson and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young at The Earl Smith Strand Theatre! Get your folk rock fix with The Broken String Band, Lola Cole and the Jess Goggans Band at Vinyl! Get intergalactic with Papadosio, JAW Gems and Skydyed at the Variety Playhouse! Interstellar Echoes pay tribute to Pink Floyd at The Vista Room! The Red Light Café presents an encore presentation of THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES benefitting One Billion Rising at 8pm! Get down and dirty with Sandra Hall & The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! Make your way to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a night with the Rockaholics! 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, February 18

Gypsy jazz it up with Kool Kat Amy Pike and The Bonaventure Quartet at Eddie’s Attic! Get your Allman Brothers fix with Tribute at City Winery! Make your way to the Avondale Towne Cinema for the Badash All-Star Team’s Michael McDonald v. Kenny Loggins Jam! Make your way to the The Earl Smith Strand Theatre for their presentation of The Sam Cooke Story “A Changae is Gon Come”! It’s day 2 of Hammerhead Fest V at The Star Bar featuring Black Tusk, Death of Kings, Shehehe, The Dirty Magazines, Repulsory, and Get Damned! Rock out with a night of bubblegum pop with Starbenders, Chief Scout, The Soul Shakers and Juan de Fuca at The Earl! Rev it up with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt & the Psycho-Devilles at the Dixie Tavern! Honkytonk on down to Venkman’s for the Georgia Soul Council’s Album Release Party! Eighties it up with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade at Wild Wing Café (Dunwoody) for their 2nd Anniversary Bash! Glam it up with The Lemon Twigs and Savoy Motel at Aisle 5! Rev it up with Roxie Watson at the Crimson Moon Café! Blues it up with the Cody Matlock Band at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!  Get the funky disco blues with Moontower at Smith’s Olde Bar! Get intergalactic for night two with Papadosio, Zoogma and Echo Maestro at the Variety Playhouse! Big Bill Morganfield gets down and dirty at Blind Willie’s! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! Get folksy with The Good Graces at Kavarna! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, February 19

Get revived at Eddie’s Attic with a “Brunch by Revival” featuring Eric “Ricky” McKinnie and Paul Beasley (The Blind Boys of Alabama) and Mudcat & The Atlanta Horns! Catch John Doe (“X”/The Blasters) at City Winery! The Red Light Café presents an encore presentation of THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES benefitting One Billion Rising at 8pm! Rock out with He is Legend at The Drunken Unicorn! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar! And blues it up with Dr. Dixon at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Ongoing

Dad’s Garage’s Big Boozy Nerdy Game Night brings out the kid in you, every first Monday of the month at 7pm!

Union EAV rocks out with their Punk Rock Karaoke ATL, and every last Tuesday of the month!

Geek it up at My Parents’ Basement with their weekly Tuesday night Nerd Trivia at 8pm!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Filling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the 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.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Hey all you dapper fellas and glitzy gals! Cupid got your tongue? “Be Mine”, vintage-style this year and celebrate all that is vintage and Valentine’s in Retro Atlanta! Get romantic, retro-style and see what we have in store for you during this week of love and saucy seduction!

1. Crooners and Red Hot Jazz. Swing on by The Earl Smith Strand Theatre for Douglas Cameron and his 17-piece Big Band’s Fly Me to the Moon concert at 8pm (Feb. 14)! Rat Pack Now croons on down to the Red Clay Theatre, doors at 6:30pm (Feb. 15)! Or jazz it up during the Emory Jazz Fest’s free Big Band Night at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, featuring the Gary Motley Trio at 8pm (Feb. 11). Croon away with our Kool Kat “Big Mike” Geier and his King-sized Trio at The Vista Room (Feb. 10)! Venkman’s dishes out a Valentine’s Day Dinner featuring classical jazz with Le Grand Fromage and a Prix fixe menu by Executive Chef Nick Melvin, $65/person, begins at 5:30pm (Feb. 14)!

2. Blackhearts Unite. It’s a night of murder ballads made popular by Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Nirvana and a whole lotta’ bloody maniacal mayhem at The Earl with their third annual Bloody Valentine’s event, featuring Kool Kat Aileen Loy with Till Someone Loses an Eye, W8ing4UFOs, a motley mix of musicians and performers and more bloody romantic fun (Feb. 10)!

3. Oh là là!  Get sinfully seductive at 7 Stages during Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and the burly-Q gals of Syrens of the South’s 10th Annual Vixen’s Valentease Vaudeville & Variety Show (Feb. 11)! And if you just can’t get enough let Ms. Lashe and her burly-Q gals of Syrens of the South spice up your Valentine’s evening with their Tease Tuesday Burlesque: Hearts & Heartbreakers event, shakin’ it up at the Red Light Café (Feb. 14)! Or shimmy on down to the Shakespeare Tavern for Hearts A’Blaze Entertainment’s Vari-E-Tease! A Valentine’s Burlesque Show with Kool Kat Talloolah Love, Kool Kat Roula Roulette, Kool Kat Lola LeSoleil, Kool Kat Ursula Undress, DJ Doctor Q and more! (Feb. 11). Get a little naughty with a flock of flirty feathers this Valentine’s Day at Paris On Ponce’s 12th Annual Valentine’s Burlesque Show “Birds of Paradise” with two tantalizing shows each night, 7:30pm and 9:30pm (Feb. 11 & 12)! Or Strut your stuff and get kinky with Mary and Friends: Love is Love event at the Red Light Café (Feb. 10)!

4. It’s Boogie Time (Funk/Disco).  Get funky and groove on down to The Star Bar for Romeo Cologne’s Granny Panty Hootenanny, featuring the gals of the Clermont Lounge with DJ Quasi Mandisco (Feb. 11)!

5. Art, Comedy & Theatre, OH MY!  The Highland Inn Ballroom & Lounge dishes out a Ballroom Blitz Artist Market, featuring 20 vintage and more vendors from 5-10pm (Feb. 12)! Get wickedly weird this season of love and lust and pick up some local art goodies at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club’s Lovecrafts: Valentine’s Edition from 1-6pm (Feb. 12)! Dig up some swell goodies for your sinister sweetie and make your way to My Parents’ Basement for their February Bizarre Bazaar featuring 10 local artists and designers, from noon-5pm (Feb. 12)! The Center for Puppetry Arts presents their Valentine’s Night Out (18+) with puppet shenanigans, complimentary desserts, a free caricature of you and your love from 7-9:30pm, $20/person (Feb. 11)! Wax poetic at Center Stage for their Passion & Poetry Valentine’s event featuring spoken word and Broadway-esque performances at 7pm (Feb. 14)! Or be a pair of star-crossed lovers as the Shakespeare Tavern performs their special Valentine’s production of “Romeo & Juliet” at 7:30pm (Feb. 14)! For all our jaded lovers out there, you won’t want to miss Whole World Improv.’s Bitter, Lonely Valentine’s Puke Fest 2017 at 10:30pm (Feb. 11)! Laugh it up with Perfect Strangers Improv’s Perfect Strangers and Flying Giants event this Valentine’s Day at 8:30pm (Feb. 14)!

6. Medieval & Classic. And for all you knights in shining armor, get really retro and romantic with the royal one in your life and joust on down to Medieval Times for their Valentine’s Day Couples Package!  $110 gets you 2 admissions, a photo, handcrafted chocolates, champagne in keepsake glasses, and more!

7. Groovin’ Up Slowly.  Be a smooth operator and sail on down to Park Tavern in Piedmont Park for Yacht Rock Schooner’s evening of smooth and silly love songs! It’ll be an evening of smooth 70s and 80s love songs, so put on your dancin’ shoes and come aboard (Feb. 10); Doors at 7 pm! ATL Collective presents Sade’s “Love Deluxe” at Venkman’s; Doors at 8:30pm (Feb. 10)!

8. Lovin’ on the Silver Screen.  ‘Here’s looking at you kid!’ Take a peek at love and romance Old Hollywood-style at The Strand Theater as they screen Michael Curtiz’s classic romantic drama, CASABLANCA (1942), starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman at 8pm. Live organ pops variety show and sing-along featuring The Strand’s Mighty Allen Theatre Organ at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $8 for adults and $7 for students, seniors, and military. Or if you’re lookin’ for a little late-night rendezvous with a few transsexual aliens, stick around and catch The Strand Theatre’s screening of Jim Sharman’s THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) at 11:55pm, for $10 (Feb. 11)! Celebrate the  60th Anniversary screening of Leo McCarey’s AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957) at theatres across Atlanta (2pm/7pm) [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville)]; Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow) (Feb. 12 & 15)!

9. Cupid’s Culinary Delights!  Hula on over to Trader Vic’s and escape into the island atmosphere of love with their pre-fix Tropical Valentine’s Day Dinner, $60++ (Feb. 14). Grab your geeky guy or gal and make your way to Battle & Brew’s Valentine’s Day Dinner, featuring a Prix Fixe menu, $80/couple (Feb. 14)!

10. We Goth You Covered.  For the darkly romantic, The Oakland Cemetery offers their Love Stories Tour, complete with tales of loves past led by a Victorian-era clad docent. Tours last an hour, just long enough to meet a kindred spirit or even a new love! Get spooked and “Scream in the Dark” with Netherworld’s candlelit evening of ghosts and goblins and monsters, oh my (Feb. 11)! Get loved to death while traversing the land of passionate souls longing for love. (Feb. 11 & 12)! Gussy it up gore-style at the Red Light Café’s Valloween Dance Party featuring The Atlanta Rock ‘n’ Roll All-stars (Feb. 11)!

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Get hep to the jive and take a peek at what’s going down in ATLRetro This Week!

Monday, February 6

Catch a thief, or even a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s TO CATCH A THIEF (1955) at the Alpharetta Branch Library at 10:30am! Get jazzy with the Emerald Empire Band at The Vista Room! Or make your way to the Blind Willie’s as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month! Skye Paige, “Queen of Slide Guitar” rocks out at the Little Vinyl Lounge! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a side of Dry White Toast and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ!

Tuesday, February 7

Landmark Midtown Art Cinema kills it with their Noir Film Classics Series with a screening of Billy Wilder’s DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) at 7pm! Make your way to City Winery for a night with Stephen Kellogg and Harrow Fair! Dance with the devil in the pale moonlight at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern as they screen Tim Burton’s BATMAN (1989) during their “Classic Films on the Big Screen” series at 7:30pm! Get the blues with Ross Pead & Friends at Front Page News (L5P)! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s every Tuesday! Blues it up with Grant Reynolds at Blind Willie’s! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with their Downtown Tuesday Night Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! Or come down to the Little Vinyl Lounge for Kenny’s Record Club featuring Kenny Howes dishin’ out John Lennon’s “IMAGINE”! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, February 8

Rock out with Uli Jon Roth (Scorpions) at City Winery! It’s a night of folk rock psychedelia at The Earlwith Liz Cooper & The Stampede and Airpark! Make a date with fate during Studio Movie Grill’s (Alpharetta/Duluth) screening of Michael Curtiz’ classic, CASABLANCA (1942) at 7:30pm! Catch Emory Cinematheque’s screening of J. L. Anderson’s SPRING NIGHT, SUMMER NIGHT (1967) at 7:30pm as part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive Festival of Preservation Tour! Dance with the devil in the pale moonlight at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern as they give you an encore screening of Tim Burton’s BATMAN (1989) during their “Classic Films on the Big Screen” series at 7:30pm! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack dishes out a night of the blues with Frankie’s Blues Mission! Jazz it up at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! It’s as night of foot-stompin’ Americana with The BooHoo Ramblers at Blind Willie’s! The Star Bar gets down with their Okie Dokie Karaoke, every Wednesday at 9pm! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! St. James Live! delivers their Hump Days Blues night, getting classic blues-style every Wednesday! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, February 9

Rock out with The Scragglers, Sodajerk and Reconciler at The Star Bar! Make your way to the Variety Playhouse and experience Al Di Meola’s Elegant Gypsy 40th Anniversary Tour! Celebrate Black History Month with free African-American History Tours at the Historic Oakland Cemetery, through Feb. 21! Get the blues with Jason Childs’ Blues Jam at the Crimson Moon Café! It’s a hootenanny and a half at with Kool Kat Col. Bruce Hampton & the Madrid Express at The Vista Room! Stomp on down to the Red Light Café for a Bluegrass Pickin’ Party! George Hughley & The Shadows get the blues at Blind Willie’s! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so hula on down to Trader Vic’s and get some soul with Bogey & The Viceroy! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! 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! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! And as always, boogie down at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, February 10

It’s an evening of murder ballads, obsession and love gone wrong with the third annual Bloody Valentine show featuring Kool Kat Aileen Loy with Till Someone Loses and Eye, W8ing4UFOs and so much more at The Earl! The Star Bar gets down with a night of shenanigans with Kenny Howes & The Wow!, Kool Kat Jeffrey Butzer and The Compartmentalizationalists, Navajo Joe and Steve Baskin! Kingsize it up with Kool Kat “Big Mike” Geier with The Kingsized Trio at The Vista Room! Gangster it up at SCADShow for their screening of Brian De Palma’s SCARFACE (1983) at 7pm! Stomp on down to City Winery for a night with the Packway Handle Band and Forlorn Strangers! ZOSO dish out a night of Led Zeppelin at the Variety Playhouse with The Vegabonds! Or groove on down to Park Tavern and get your fill of silly love songs with Yacht Rock Schooner! Make your way to Avondale Towne Cinema for a night of local mischief with Station 7, Vinyl Refuge and Melonfunky! Get down to Venkman’s for a night with ATL Collective as they relive Sade’s “LOVE DELUXE”! Eighties it up with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade at The Alamo in Newnan! Rock out with Bon Jovi at Philips Arena! Or AFI at The Buckhead Theatre! Strut your stuff and get kinky with Mary and Friends: Love is Love event at the Red Light Café! Get down with House Rocker Johnson & The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! Blues it up with the Wild Hares at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! 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, February 11

Ghosts and love collide at the Historic Oakland Cemetery with their Love Stories of Oakland tours running through Feb. 12! Surf on down Kavarna for a night with Kool Kat Chad Shivers’ Southern Surf Stomp! featuring Liz Brasher, The Wave Slaves and Radisaurus Rex! Get your cult classic fix with Andrea Colburn & Her Low Standards with The Boy Jones with Barbarella Night at Avondale Towne Cinema! Or get sinfully seductive at 7 Stages for Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and the burly-Q gals of Syrens of the South’s 10th Annual Vixen’s Valentease Vaudeville & Variety Show! Groove on down to The Star Bar for Romeo Cologne’s Granny Panty Hootenanny with DJ Quasi Mandisco! Make your way to Smith’s Olde Bar as Rumours plays Fleetwood Mac’s “RUMOURS”! Stomp on down to The Vista Room for a night with Donna Hopkins and friends! Gussy it up gore-style at the Red Light Café’s Valloween Dance Party featuring The Atlanta Rock ‘n’ Roll All-stars! ZOSO dish out an encore night of Led Zeppelin at the Variety Playhouse with The Mammoths! Get down and dirty with Sandra Hall & The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! Get to the root of it all with Delta Moon at Eddie’s Attic! Bluegrass it up with Banjolicious at Venkman’s! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, February 12

Make your way to My Parents’ Basement for their February Bizarre Bazaar and pick up a few things for the one who’s stolen your bloody heart, from 12-5pm! Groove on down to Venkman’s for an unplugged night with Yacht Rock Revue! Celebrate the  60th Anniversary screening of Leo McCarey’s AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957) at theatres across Atlanta (2pm/7pm) [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville)]; Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow)! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar! And blues it up with Dr. Dixon at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Ongoing

Dad’s Garage’s Big Boozy Nerdy Game Night brings out the kid in you, every first Monday of the month at 7pm!

Union EAV rocks out with their Punk Rock Karaoke ATL, and every last Tuesday of the month!

Geek it up at My Parents’ Basement with their weekly Tuesday night Nerd Trivia at 8pm!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Filling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the 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.

Days of the Dead will be celebrating its sixth spooktacular year at Sheraton Hotel Atlanta this Friday-Sunday Feb. 3-5. Our favorite part as always about this horror media convention is that it celebrates not just contemporary cinema but retro classics. In other words, there’s plenty to please both the gore-fan and the Famous Monsters Kid. Here are 10 of our top things to do this year.

1) LINDA BLAIR. Duck and cover before she spits pea soup on you. Seriously, though, the star of THE EXORCIST (1973), SAVAGE STREETS (1984) and ROLLER BOOGIE (1979) deserves our utmost Retroexploitation respect, and we hear she’s sweet as pumpkin pie.

2) STRANGER THINGS. Look for a quartet of young stars from this spooky sci-fi back-to-the-‘80s hit Netflix drama including Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo and Finn Wolfhard.  Get your photos signed and catch them onstage for a panel at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

3) SID HAIG AND BILL MOSELEY. Returning once more are two of the sweetest sinister guys in show businesses. Sid Haig, one of those rare B-movie icons and character actors whose career spans the decades from Jack Hill’s blaxploitation films of the 1970s to the chaotic, creepy Captain Spaulding. Hear his reflections on an amazing career Sunday at noon. Quite frankly you and Bill Moseley scared the sh-t out of us in THE DEVIL’s REJECTS (2005), and since we’re not easily scared, for that we salute you both!

4) DOUG BRADLEY. The one and only real Pinhead returns to show you such sights, interpret your dreams and tempt you with autographs.  Hear his tales of terror on the set during an hour onstage Saturday at 2 p.m.

5) PJ SOLES & LYNN LOWRY. Forget their remake replacements. These ladies won our horror hearts as two of 70s/80s swellest scream queens for their turns in the original HALLOWEEN (1978) and THE CRAZIES (1973), but to us, PJ will always be Riff Randell eating pizza with the Ramones and toppling Principal Togar in one of our favorite cult movies ever, Roger Corman‘s unparalleled ROCK N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL (1979).

6) JOHN RUSSO wrote the screenplay for THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) and appeared in it as a zombie. Need we say more?! An undead living legend.

7) THREE FACES OF JASON. Kane Hodder, Steve Dash and C.J. Graham all donned the legendary hockey mask. Hear them recall their times of terror Friday at 8 p.m. and catch them all weekend in the autograph area. Seriously though, these are some sweet dudes and you don’t have to be afraid if they blow you a kiss. Well, maybe.

8) PROFESSOR MORTE, JAMES BICKERT, MADELINE BRUMBY & THE CASKET CREATURES. Another swell thing about Days of the Dead is how it’s embraced Atlanta’s local horror talent including four of our favorite ATLRetro Kool Kats of all time. Catch punk/horror local favorites the Casket Creatures in concert Friday night at 11 pm (Kool Kat interview here). Infamous director James Bickert (Kool Kat here) leads a panel on the making of FRANKENSTEIN CREATED BIKERS (2016) with cast and crew members including Atlanta’s favorite hold-no-prisoners fightin’ Scream Queen Madeline Brumby (Kool Kat here) Saturday at 4 p.m., and the movie screens at Midnight. The Silver Scream Spookshow’s Ghost Host with the Most Professor Morte, aka ATLHorror Renaissance man Shane Morton (Kool Kat here), will be scaring it up in the exhibit area with creepy creations for sale and at The Days of the Dead ‘80s Slasher Prom Saturday night at 11 p.m.

9) SCARE-TASTIC SHOPPING.  Horror cons are the perfect place to stock up on both macabre movie memorabilia, cult classics on DVD and creepy clothing, costumes and accessories.

10) FRIGHTENING FILMS & MORE! The nonstop action includes a 48-hour film festival featuring new and classic indie horror shorts (both US and international), animation, features and con exclusives. Plus costume contests, SFX how-to panels, Haunt Acting 101, and much more!

Days of the Dead main con hours are Fri. Feb. 3 from 5 to 11 p.m.; Sat. Feb. 4 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Sun. Feb. 7 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with parties and films going late into the night on Friday and Saturday. Kids under 10 and military free. For more info, click visit the Days of the Dead Atlanta official website here.