Lite + Brite: 27 Hot Summer Austin Events 7/14
Hello, what’s up, and welcome to the Lite + Brite newsletter.
Before moving to Austin, we lived in the northeast, where it makes total sense to schedule outdoor movies and concerts and street fairs for the summertime. Those are the months when it’s pleasant to be outside for extended periods of time, especially in the evening, when the sun has set and you can relax on a picnic blanket in a park at peak bloom, enjoying free outdoor entertainment.
Somehow Austin refuses to understand that it is not the northeast. Outdoor movies and concerts and street fairs are delightful—but not in this weather! Good lord! Why is Blues on the Green, an otherwise excellent annual event, happening this week? Why is the free Zilker Park musical going on now, of all times? Be reasonable!
Other notes from the coming days: One of our favorite creative venues is opening its new home. A legendary Austin psych rock icon would have been turning 76, so you can celebrate his birthday at the venue named for him, or at another venue which is not named for him but which does purport to have ice cream. It’s Bastille Day over at our favorite local French restaurant. If you agree that the only outdoor activities in triple-digit heat should occur inside bodies of water, then the Austin Motel pool has got you covered. Scroll down for details on all this and more.
If you’re not already a subscriber to this newsletter and you want to be, click here. We do one newsletter a week, usually on Fridays, plus this bonus monthly edition around the start of each month. Please support us by contributing to our Patreon and by forwarding this email to your friends who enjoy things like listening to music and leaving the house sometimes.
Let’s do fun stuff!
—Leila + Brian
liteandbriteatx.com
OUR STUFF
No Humans Allowed, Brian’s radio show, marked this week by collecting some of his desert island discs together, including some unforgettable indie sleaze, electropop, + italo classics. You can listen to Desert Island Discs on the KPISS archives, or scroll down for the full tracklist + episode art. The show is live every Wednesday at 6pm on kpiss.fm.
No Lights No Lycra will be back on July 27th at West China Tea House. We’ll be continuing to dance through the dusk into the dark as sunset gets later and stays light longer, and we’ve got some creative lighting ideas and sunset-appropriate tunes in the meantime. We’ll be monthly for June and July thanks to travel plans, and then back to 2nd and 4th Thursdays in August. You can listen to a playlist of music from the last edition here or scroll to the bottom of this newsletter for a track listing.
EVENTS
Friday 7/14
- Bodies of Work III at RichesArt
Local artists create works centered around the human body - Hot Summer Mess at Elysium
Drag contest to see who is the hottest mess this summer - La Résistance at Justine’s
Celebrate Bastille Day w/DJs from France + Austin, + burlesque - Electric Avenue Dance Walk at Casa de Luz
- Dance Now at the Highball
A Taylor Swift dance party / singalong featuring her music vids - Lush Pop-Up Art Show at the Cathedral
See + buy new work by local artists + complimentary beverages - (weekly thru 8/25) Float Films at the Austin Motel Pool
Watch the Texas Chainsaw Massacre from the safety of a pool
Saturday 7/15
- RE:BOOT at dadaLab
New venue unveiling w/live electronic music + live visual artists - Cyber Nights at Elysium
Chrome up + head over to a cyberpunk-themed dance party - Plus-Size Clothing Swap at the Future Front House
Swap clothes without worrying if things are in your size - Summer Dream’n Sonic Soul Tribe Burning Man Camp Fundraiser at Madrone Coffee
DJs, aerialists, fire dancers, + a “certifiably haunted” coffee shop - Texas Roller Derby at the Palmer Events Center
Two tough teams battle in a banked track roller derby - Dance Walking: Barton Springs Edition at Auditorium Shores
A Frankensteinian amalgam: one part dancing, one part walking - Roky Erikson Ice Cream Social at Tweedy’s
Ice cream, psychedelic posters, DJ + live musical tributes to Roky - Roky Erickson Appreciation & Birthday Tribute Show at the 13th Floor
Vinyl DJ + live musical tributes to Roky Erickson at a place named for him - Ghost Tour at Pioneer Farms
A haunted hike through some 19th century farm buildings - Lush Pop-Up Art Show at the Cathedral
See + buy new work by local artists + complimentary beverages - City-Wide Vintage Sale at the Palmer Events Center
A vintage sale so big only the entire city could contain it
Sunday 7/16
- That Pun Show at GameOn! ATX
Sip pun-themed cocktails + watch contestants in a pun-off - The Shiny Market and Fire Jam at Shiny Things for Shiny People
Fire dancers, DJs, vendors, live painters, crystals + mediums - City-Wide Vintage Sale at the Palmer Events Center
- (weekly) Splash Dance at the Austin Motel Pool
Poolside aerobics with Austin’s most creative aerobics instructor
Monday 7/17
- Cthonic Salon at the Velvet Casket
Drink tea + discuss “the dead and spirits of the doors between worlds” - (weekly) Hyperreal Film Club at Hotel Vegas
Watch the most eurodance-centric of all SNL movies
Tuesday 7/18
- Blues on the Green at Zilker Park
Free outdoor concert series in Zilker Park
Wednesday 7/19
- Blues on the Green at Zilker Park
Free outdoor concert series in Zilker Park - Normal Gossip at the Paramount
Attend a live taping of a podcast about gossip
Thursday 7/20
- Sneak’Art at 2324 Studios
An exhibition of art incorporating + about sneakers, plus vendor market - Queer Film Theory 101 at Barrel O’ Fun
Film “professors” discuss some big summer blockbusters - Hot Summer Nights at various venues on Red River
A weekend of free concerts across all of Red River’s venues
No Humans Allowed 155
Desert Island Discs
This week’s episode of No Humans Allowed coincided with the birthday of the creator of NHA, Brian Blackout. We celebrated with an hour of favorite synth + italo tunes. We’ll never get off this island but we’ll never get sick of these songs either.
Tracklist
Junior Boys – Birthday
Felix da Housecat – Ready 2 Wear
The Van She – Kelly
Young Galaxy – Crying My Heart Out
International Music System – Dancing Therapy
Kano – Another Life (Pontchartrain Edit)
Claes Rosen – Wonderful (HNNY Edit)
Birdy Nam Nam – Cadillac Dreams
Prefab Sprout – Bonny
Midnight Star – Midas Touch (CFCF Remix)
Oattes Van Schaik – Crimes of Passion
The Magnetic Fields – In My Secret Place
Martika – Love…Thy Will Be Done
Choir Boy – Nites Like This
My Favorite – You Belong with Us
PATREON THANKS
A huge thank-you to our Patreon subscribers Spencer, Kristen Backor, Christina Jue, Timon A., Kate Murray, and Amy Wilde. We’re deeply grateful for your support, which allows us to do things like “pay our Mailchimp fee” and “spend hours researching Austin events when technically we should be working.”
If you’d like to support us on Patreon and get access to exclusive member-only benefits, you may do so here.
SOCIALS
Follow Lite + Brite on Instagram to keep up with our adventures. Recent weeks brought us to the grand opening party at Foxtrot, the Future Fossils art show at the ODIN, and the 37th Street Lights show. And come chat with us and the rest of the L+B community on our Discord server!
ABOUT US
How do we choose which events to feature?
Honestly, it’s pretty random. We might include anything in Austin that we, personally, would conceivably want to go to, generally excluding normal concerts, comedy shows, and movie showtimes because there are many other good resources for finding those. (We especially recommend Showlist for live music, The Darker Side of Austin for goth and metal stuff, and the 60+ Weirdest Things in Austin for exactly what it sounds like). This list is by no means exhaustive; it’s just stuff that caught our eye this week. If you have an event that you want us to consider including, send it over.
Who are we?
We make this newsletter. We put on No Lights No Lycra every second and fourth Thursday of the month. We do some other stuff here and there. We love going out to creative events in Austin, and we want you to join us. Visit us at liteandbriteatx.com, and support us on Patreon if you like what we do.