Lite + Brite: 34 Enchanted Austin Events 2/8

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

Tonight is the FIVE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY of No Lights No Lycra, our dance party in the dark! It was a big part of what motivated us to start doing this newsletter. Please come to West China Tea to celebrate with us. And then you can go back to West China Tea on Saturday for their Lunar New Year party. If you like off-the-wall performances (and, given that you subscribe to this newsletter, you probably do), then you should check out the final week of Frontera Fest and the kickoff of Outsider Fest. If you want to interact with some cute animals, you have two opportunities to cuddle some goats, or take pics of your dog, or watch pets of a variety of species (but, let’s be honest, probably mostly dogs) perform stupid tricks. You can browse crafts made by refugees (thanks to our Patreon supporter Timon for calling this event to our attention!) and crafts made by kids, or see the future of fashion made by ACC students. You can hear stories told live by elders in Austin’s queer community or about this crazy little thing called love. Or celebrate Valentine’s Day with an immersive screening of Cats. Really you can’t go wrong! 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 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

Tonight is the FIVE-YEAR anniversary of our dance party in the dark, No Lights No Lycra. We started the Austin chapter the first week of February 2019. (The first NLNL started in Australia way back in 2009, but that was before our time.) We kept it running all through the Covid lockdowns, when we broadcast weekly on Twitch. A livestream is not the ideal way to experience a dance party, but that’s just how committed we were to keeping this thing going. And here we are at five years. We hope you’ll come out to West China Tea on Thursday to celebrate this milestone with us. If you want to know what the music will sound like, you can check out a recording of a NLNL we did a while back here.

If you read our monthly newsletter earlier this week you might have noticed we’re going to be doing both a subscriber meetup and also a party where we watch very good YouTubes together, which is totally free + coming up on February 25th. We’ll have more to say as we get closer.

No Humans Allowed once again returned to Club Dongle, the imaginary robots-only nightclub that is its most-returned-to imaginary destination (and once we held an IRL version at Dadalab), leading to an extremely danceable mix of italo, disco, techno, + house. Stream the show here or scroll down for the tracklisting. 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 2/9

  • Love Bites at Cheer Up Charlie’s
    Drag performers pay tribute to Twilight’s sparkly vampires
  • Body Mechanics at 820 Shelby Lane
    DJs happily blurring the lines between a dance party + a fetish party
  • Variations on a Love Theme at First Street Studio
    Chamber musicians + ballet performers telling tales of love
  • Amaging at the Vortex
    Storytelling focusing on older members of Austin’s LGBTQIA+ community
  • PrintEXPO at Blue Genie
    Buy + view art prints by a wide array of printmakers
  • (weekly thru 2/25) Portal into the Mind: The Starseed Experience at 10203 Old Manchaca Rd.
    Art + sculpture meets live visuals, DJs, + performers

Saturday 2/10

  • Lunar New Year at West China Tea
    Celebrate LNY with tea, traditional dances, performers, + vendors
  • Stupid Pet Tricks at Meanwhile Brewing
    Pets doing tricks, adoptions, photo ops, pet centric vendors + activities
  • Uncanny Attractions at Highland Lounge
    “All-inclusive professional wrestling with a side of drag”
  • House of Mab at Elysium
    Live music, DJ, dark fantasy fashion dress code, + photo booth
  • Refugee Arts Bazaar at the North Austin YMCA
    Buy gifts made by refugee artisans and cooks from all over the world
  • Second Saturdays at the Blanton
    Enjoy some live music while you check out art at the Blanton
  • Goat Cuddles and Coffee at the Hive
    Cuddle or watch tiny animals while sipping warming beverages
  • Sip & Snuggle at Hopsquad
    Cuddle goats + enjoy adult beverages
  • Puppy Love at Cosmic
    Valentine’s-themed pet photo ops, vendors, tattoos, + custom cocktails
  • Variations on a Love Theme at First Street Studio
    Chamber musicians + ballet performers telling tales of love
  • Kids Handmade Mini Market at Austin Creative Reuse
    Buy goods hand made by kids + support young entrepreneurs
  • Amaging at the Vortex
    Storytelling focusing on older members of Austin’s LGBTQIA+ community
  • PrintEXPO at Blue Genie
    Buy + view art prints by a wide array of printmakers
  • (weekly thru 2/17) Frontera Fest Best of the Week at Hyde Park Theatre
    “Alternative, offbeat, new, and just plain off-the-wall fringe theatre”
  • (weekly thru 2/17) Sextet at ColdTowne
    “Improvised romantic comedy” centered around love + coupling
  • (weekly thru 2/25) Portal into the Mind: The Starseed Experience at 10203 Old Manchaca Rd.
    Art + sculpture meets live visuals, DJs, + performers

Sunday 2/11

Monday 2/12

  • Roller Rodeo Disco at Playland
    Rollerskate to your favorite country songs w/the Neon Rainbows crew
  • Silent Book Club at Vintage Books & Wine
    Silently read books together + optional sharing
  • ATX Short Film Showcase at the Spider House Ballroom
    The films are short, the filmmakers are Texan + of varying heights
  • (weekly) Hyperreal Film Club at Hotel Vegas
    Watch a Jonathan Demme film about opposites attracting

Tuesday 2/13

Wednesday 2/14

  • Jellicle Night at the Museum of Human Achievement
    Themed meal + an interactive screening of the most feline musical film
  • Derelict Valentine’s Night at Justine’s
    DJ, art installations, risqué bookshops, + “fantasy aphrodisiac drinks”
  • LoveBomb at Elysium
    Fundraiser ft. DJs, drag, burlesque performers, + a spanking booth
  • Testify at Barrel O’Fun
    Love/Valentine’s-themed storytelling
  • Frontera Fest “Best of the Fest” at Hyde Park Theatre
    “Alternative, offbeat, new, and just plain off-the-wall fringe theatre”

Thursday 2/15

Our SxSW 2024 Picks

SXSW is in five weeks, and resident wristbands are now available! $149 for a Music Festival wristband and $120 for a Film Festival Wristband—it’s 1/10th as expensive as a badge, and all of us Austin residents are eligible.

Brian’s Pick
La Securité
Icy female-fronted post-punk from the Great White North

Previous Picks
Discovery Zone
Berlin-based Bedroom synthpop with a unique sense of wonder. A highlight from SxSW 2022
The View
Scottish indie rock ‘n’ roll. I last saw this band in 2008 and am so excited to see them again.

No Humans Allowed 181
Now That’s What I Call Dongle

This week on No Humans Allowed, the robots return to Club Dongle, our imaginary robots only nightclub. We asked an AI to make me a Now That’s What I Call type poster and this is what it came up with. Tune in live for artificially clubby jams and a dumb sense of robot humor.

Stream Now That’s What I Call Dongle

Tracklist
Moe Shop – You Look So Good
Sworn Virgins – Take Your Lady
Jessie Ware & Róisín Murhpy – Freak Me Now
Greetings – Look Within
Alison Goldfrapp – Fever
Luther Vandross – For the Sweetness of Your Love (Physique Edit)
Modern Talking – Diamonds Never Made a Lady (Ted Lyons & His Cubs Edit)
Cafe Society – Somebody to Love
Jupiter Beyond – River Drive (Moxie Edit)
Zero Zero – Zeroxed
Brainstorm – Rock the House
Acorn Arts – Body (Zoom Snakecharmer Remix)
Pepsi Sine – Friendsomine

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 161 – Indie Sleaze Special
w/Brian Blackout

Recorded live in the dark at West China Tea House on January 25, 2024.

Listen to No Lights No Lycra 161

Tracklist
Velella Velella – Brass Ass
Spoon – I Turn My Camera On
Modest Mouse – Float On
Munk – Kick out the Chairs (Whomadewho Remix)
MGMT – Electric Feel (James Rutledge Remix)
Shocking Pinks – Us Against the City
CSS – Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death from Above
Junior Senior – Move Your Feet
The Rapture – Sister Saviour (DFA Remix)
Justin Timberlake – SexyBack
The Juan Maclean – Give Me Every Little Thing
Justice vs Simian – We Are Your Friends
Bag Raiders – Shooting Stars
Annie – Anthonio
Miss Kitten & the Hacker – Nurse
Benny Benassi & the Biz – Satisfaction
Chicks on Speed – Glamour Girl
Mylo – Drop the Pressure
LCD Sounsystem – Yeah (Crass Version)
Soulwax – NY Excuse
Hot Hot Heat – Talk to Me, Dance with Me
The Faint – Glass Danse
Bloc Party – Banquet
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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