Lite + Brite: 21 Rawring Austin Events 12/29

Hello, what’s up, and welcome to the Lite + Brite newsletter.

We don’t want to be too down on New Years Eve parties, but they often leave a lot to be desired. NYE is amateur night, and if you subscribe to this newsletter, you are not an amateur.

This is not to say that there are no appealing-looking NYE parties. There are, and we’ve listed them below. It’s just that, by and large, NYE is an occasion for many venues to book a couple bands, hand out Dixie cups of champagne, vaguely reference the Great Gatsby in their promotional copy, and charge you $95 for the honor. This is a newsletter devoted to creative and high-concept events, and in their attempts to appeal to the broadest possible base, NYE parties are often anything but that.

Still, we have scoured that internet and turned up some events that seem promising: a variety of aerialists, a 24-hour “potluck picnic, clothing swap, and drag show,” a reasonably-priced Labyrinthine dance party, and of course a free fireworks show. Scroll down for details on all this and some non-NYE events as well. Anything we missed? Throw it in our Discord server.

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 a bonus edition around the start of each month. If you enjoy this newsletter, 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

January is nearly here, so it’s time to announced our first No Lights No Lycra of the new year. We’ve got parties happening 2nd + 4th Thursdays, so that’s January 11th and the 25th, and February 8th + 22nd. If you’ve never been, it’s the dance party we throw in near complete darkness in the big backroom at West China Tea. Brian Blackout spins a broad mix of anthems, obscurities, + guilty pleasures across many decades. You can listen to a live recording of the last show we did to hear how it sounds, or scroll down for the full tracklist and more info.

With the holidays going on, No Humans Allowed took this week off, but Brian will be back next week with a best of 2023 show. In the meantime we thought it was a good chance to look back to his 3rd anniversary show from earlier this year. Stream that here or scroll down for the track listing. NHA broadcasts live every Wednesday at 6pm CT on kpiss.fm.

What is No Lights No Lycra?
Austin’s twice-monthly, judgment-free, substance-free, high-impact dance thing in the dark. It’s a DJ night that’s not at the club, a workout that’s not at the gym, a personal meditation that’s anything but silent. It’s produced by us, your kindly L+B overlords, and usually one or the other of us is on the hook for DJ duties. Read more about us in the Austin Chronicle. You can listen the kind of music we play over on Brian’s Mixcloud.

EVENTS WE’RE EYEING

Friday 12/29

Saturday 12/30

  • Kwanzaa Nia Celebration at the Carver Museum
    Celebrate Kwanzaa w/readings, live music, storytelling + more
  • Community Swap at Austin Public Library
    Got gifts you don’t want? Trade for something you do
  • Super Experience at the Eureka Room
    The Eureka Room returns to doing immersive ridiculous experiences
  • Illumaverse at dadaLab
    Immersive, holiday-themed light installations
  • The Mutt-cracker (Sweet!) at the Vortex
    An all-dog not-at-all-ballet production of the holiday favorite

Sunday 12/31

  • City of Austin NYE Celebration at Auditorium Shores (free)
    Austin’s putting on their own big NYE shindig w/live music + lots of food
  • Rawring 2024 at a secret East Austin location (free)
    Watch drag performers while you swap clothes, picnic , + enjoy a potluck
  • One More Time: A Indie Sleaze Party at Cheer Up Charlie’s ($15)
    A dance party hearkening the era of 00s sleazy indie dance music
  • Heaven & Hell Block Party at Coral Snake ($20)
    Multiple bars themed after heaven + hell w/DJs, live music, tattoos
  • New Years Eve at Tiny Minotaur (members only; membership starts at $20)
    Say goodbye to the worst of 2023 by ritually burning said worst stuff
  • Goblin King’s New Years Eve Ball at Elysium ($24)
    A Labyrinth-themed NYE party w/DJs spinning 80s classics + more
  • Body Rock ATX: Computer Love at Sahara Lounge ($30)
    Get sweaty w/ DJs + computers over at Sahara
  • The Decline of Hotel Vegas at Hotel Vegas ($46)
    A host of Austin musicians covering artists from the 80s
  • Neon Jungle at Indra’s Awarehouse ($50)
    Lots of performers, aerialists, fire spinners, lasers, + tea service
  • NYE Party at Fierce Whiskers ($50)
    New Year’s circus arts incl aerialists, jugglers, + knife throwers
  • NYE Spectacular at the Palmer Events Center ($55)
    Watch aerialists while you enjoy a DJ + traditional NYE fixins like balloons + confetti
  • British Invasion Party at Eberly ($135)
    Fancy cocktails + DJ themed after the 1960s British invasion
  • Animalique at Justine’s ($175)
    A dinner-included party exploring the twin themes of animals + old Hollywood

Tuesday 1/2

  • Free Day at Estate Services of Austin
    Acquire free treasures that others have found at estate sales

Thursday 12/4

  • Vogue Nights at Swan Dive
    Start the new year right w/Ballroom performers, MCs, DJs

No Humans Allowed 150
The Human Intrusion

No Humans Allowed took the week off to focus on holidays + traveling but we thought it’d be the perfect time to revisit the 3-year NHA anniversary show from last March, featuring the best of the best songs from the show. Next week will be the best of 2023 so in the meantime listen to the show’s very best.

Stream The Human Intrusion

Tracklist
Midnight Star – Midas Touch (CFCF Remix)
Bell Towers – Call Me, Please
Answering Service – Call Me Mr. Telephone
Danny Darrow – Telephones
Glowing Palms – Midnight Request Line
M Like Moon – Sunlight
Kinga – Sexy Boy (DJ Duckcomb Edit)
Lisa Edwards – Cry (Seedy J. Tearjerker Edit)
Otherlover – Backchat
Jam & Spoon – Stella (Total M’s Blissful Edit)
Holy Ghost Inc – Walk on Air (Amphibious Carbine Mix)
Birdy Nam Nam – Cadillac Dreams
P!off? – Mein Walkman Ist Kaputt
2 Nu – This Is Ponderous
Black Light Smoke – Girls Dance with Computer
Lime – I Don’t Wanna Lose U (Laura Ingalls Edit)
Blue Hawaii – I Felt Love (Suzanne Kraft Remix)
2 Fabiola – Kunta Kinte (Ragga Club Version)
101 & Jade 4U – Hear Me Coming
The Age of Love – The Age of Love (Flying Mix)
Robotiko Rejekto – Rejekto (Presentation Mix)
Haruomi Hosono – Body Snatchers
Tornado Wallace – Start Again
Cheyne – Call Me Mr. Telephone
Deee-Lite – Call Me (Ralphi’s Intense Dub)

No Humans Allowed is Brian Blackout’s award-winning, dodgy European news coverage receiving, weekly robots-themed radio show on internet station KPISS.fm. Machine vibes 4 machines. Songs for robots, androids, mandroids, cyborgs, AIs, cylons, skinjobs, roombas, wifi routers, smart devices, anything colored Bondi blue, and virtual assistants. Humans not required. Broadcasts live every Wednesday at 6pm CT on kpiss.fm, with over 150 episodes now streamable in the archives on topics like and Beach Simulations, Roomba dance parties, undersea adventures + Cyber Texas.

No Lights No Lycra ATX 159
w/Brian Blackout

Recorded live in the dark at West China Tea House on December 14, 2023.

Listen to No Lights No Lycra 159

Tracklist
Madi Diaz – Trust Fall (Jensen Sportag Remix)
The Supreme Jubilees – It’ll All Be Over (Ron Basejam Edit)
P.M. Dawn – Reality Used to Be a Friend of Mine
Claudia Telles – Foi como um Sonho (Patchouli Brothers Edit)
Icehouse – Electric Blue
Rod Stewart – Do Ya Think I’m Sexy
Róisín Murphy – Something More (Soulwax Remix)
DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince – Ring My Bell (Hula & K. Fingers club mix)
Buzz Compass – Copa for Fun
Madonna – Vogue
Depeche Mode – Enjoy the Silence
Kornél Kovács – Pantalón
Lauer – Make It Stay (Gerd Janson Remix)
Kylie Minogue – Love at First Sight
Ibibio Sound Machine – Something We’ll Remember
Bollywood Freaks – Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get to Bollywood
Boys Don’t Cry – I Wanna Be a Cowboy
Bruce Springsteen – Dancing in the Dark (Arthur Baker Mix)
The Knack – My Sharona
Joe Bataan – Subway Joe
Mitski – The Only Heartbreaker
The The – This Is the Day
The Killers – Mr. Brightside
Home – All at Once

PATREON THANKS

A huge thank-you to our Patreon subscribers Katie Green, Christina Jue, Colleen MB, Lilly Ettinger, Lena Long, Amalia Litsa, Jacob Rosenberg, Alexander Freed, Spencer, Kristen Backor, 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

Recent weeks found us celebrating “Bouncemas” at UT, partying with Art Island at the Coral Snake, and admiring art lamps at Highland Collective. Follow Lite + Brite on Instagram to keep up with our adventures. 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 do our own events, most prominently No Lights No Lycra (every second and fourth Thursday of the month). We once got called “local Austin couple” by KXAN. 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.

SEE YOU NEXT WEEK, CHAMPIONS

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