Lite + Brite: 41 Airbending Austin Events 9/20

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

There are a ton of good events going on in Austin right now, but the one we most want to tell you about is No Lights No Lycra, the dance party in the dark that we host, which will be starting up at an all-new location (3rd Eye Meditation Lounge) on an all-new day (second and fourth Wednesdays), starting next week. Scroll down for more info in the “Our Stuff” section of this newsletter, and please come check out our new home base!

In the world of events that we don’t host, we have two major annual Austin events coming up: Austin Museum Day on Sunday and HAAM Day on Tuesday. If you like books (who doesn’t?), you can celebrate them at midnight, read them silently, or discover the beauty of the banned. If you like water, you can aerobicise in it, chill in it, or purify it. If you like Shiba Inus… well, let’s just say you’re in luck. And it might be 95 degrees out, but it is officially fall, as marked by the 2nd annual Pumpkin Spice Legend Pageant. Scroll down for details on all this and plenty more.

Also, if you’ve ever considered supporting Lite + Brite on Patreon, now is an especially good time. Readers who support us at the $5 tier will soon get early access to our annual Halloween spreadsheet—that’s right, the one you surely heard about on KXAN. And they get year-round access to our advance event tracking spreadsheet, which currently has 89 entries. Plus we like them even more than we like all the rest of our subscribers, which is a lot.

Let’s do fun stuff!

—Leila + Brian
liteandbriteatx.com

OUR STUFF

We’ve been shouting it from the mountain (or the newsletter equivalent, anyway): This coming Wednesday will be our first No Lights No Lycra at 3rd Eye Meditation Lounge. We’ve had a couple months to recharge, but now we’re very excited to bring our little party back to a space that’s aligned with what we do. We’d love to see (but not actually see, it will be dark) some of you there. If you’re planning to come, we advise getting a ticket in advance because that will make your check-in process easier (but walkups are welcome, too). Tickets are $15 and we’ll be dancing from 8 til 930pm. If you wanna get amped you can listen to this month’s L+B playlist, which is an homage to No Lights No Lycra’s format: a wide mix of genres and eras, as well as a mix between known and unknown songs, with hopefully a few cheesy surprises.

Next week, No Humans Allowed, Brian’s synth-loving radio show, shifts to Tuesdays at 6pm CT. This week we flew back into Austin just in time for a radio show, so Brian quickly assembled a lineup of lesser known synthpop and new wave for the occasion. Stream Assembler over on Kpiss or check out the full show archives. Keep scrolling for the full playlist.

EVENTS WE’RE EYEING

Friday 9/20

  • ConnectiQuest at the Museum of Human Achievement
    Local game developer meetup w/swag + quests (main not side)
  • Paper Lanterns for Mid Autumn at the Museum of Human Achievement
    Learn to make traditional Chinese paper lanterns from reused grocery bags
  • Park(ing) Day at Springdale General
    A party for plants native to Austin w/giveaways, trivia, + info
  • Therapy Gecko Live at the State Theatre
    The internet’s most viral gecko performs live
  • Spelling Bee at the Dougherty Arts Center
    Spelling bee-inspired site-specific modern dance performance
  • Tarotica at Sterling Stage
    Sexy tarot-themed burlesque, drag, pole dance, bellydance + “other arcana”
  • Female Art Show at Canopy
    Art battles, performances, + live music by female artists

Saturday 9/21

  • Slam Portal at Hi Sign Brewing
    The wrestling ring meets the ring of the Zodiac for some comedy wrestling
  • Doge Parade at Pease Park
    Celebrate Shiba Inus w/parade, “Shiba’s Got Talent” + Japanese dog tricks
  • South First Block Party at Golden Mean
    Head South for vintage vendors, wellness practitioners + tattoos
  • Realms of Fungi Festival at the Arboretum
    Become a fun guy or fun gal w/fungal facts, workshops + live music 
  • Le Freak at Tiny Minotaur
    “A drag show that’s a little freaky. You will see filth, horror, and glamour”
  • Boulderfest at the Austin Bouldering Project
    Win prizes for climbing, watch pro climbers, + check out vendors
  • Pumpkin Spice Legend Pageant at Cheer Up Charlie’s
    Even though it’s 100 degrees, don’t stop partying w/gourds + pumpkin spice
  • Time to Pretend at Swan Dive
    A rare dance party devoted to indie rock past + present
  • An Evening of Innovative A/V at dadaLab
    “Live electronic music + immersive visual content” plus lots o’ lasers
  • Sequence 1: Play at the Museum of Human Achievement
    DJs spinning music in a carefully designed audio environment + vendors
  • Oktoberfest at Fitzhugh Brewing
    Live polka, German games, + various beer and German-themed contests
  • Tiny Tails to You at Batch Craft Beer
    Raise money for a good cause w/beer + tiny pettable critters
  • Texas Rollergirls at the Travis County Expo Center
    Catch the season closer for one of Austin’s roller derby teams
  • Zine Fest at Contracommon
    Local zine artists gather to show off + sell their work
  • Night Cutss at 1303 E. 4th St.
    DJs spinning post-punk, EBM, + other 80s-sounding dark subgenres
  • Spelling Bee at the Dougherty Arts Center
    Spelling bee-inspired site-specific modern dance performance
  • Tarotica at Sterling Stage
    Sexy tarot-themed burlesque, drag, pole dance, bellydance + “other arcana”
  • Female Art Show at Canopy
    Art battles, performances, + live music by female artists
  • (weekly thru 10/26) Honey Bee Hive Tour at Two Hives Honey
    Suit up in protective gear and learn about beekeeping

Sunday 9/22

  • Austin Museum Day at museums throughout Austin
    Free admission + activities in museums across Austin
  • Transistance at Cheer Up Charlie’s
    Support Austin’s trans community w/brunch, trans drag performers, DJs, chefs, + vendors
  • Oita Japan Festival at the Long Center
    Austin has a sister city in Japan! Celebrate it with Japanese culture, music, + dance
  • Avatar the Last Airbender in Concert at Bass Concert Hall
    Hear music from beloved Nickelodeon series performed by an orchestra
  • Songs in the Skyspace: Highway Lights at the Color Inside
    Live atmospheric ambient music in UT’s lovely James Turrell installation
  • Splashdance at the Austin Motel
    Poolside aerobics with Austin’s most creative aerobics instructor
  • Female Art Show at Canopy
    Art battles, performances, + live music by female artists

Monday 9/23

Tuesday 9/24

  • HAAM Day at venues throughout Austin
    Celebrate musicians’ health alliance w/music all around town

Wednesday 9/25

  • No Lights No Lycra at 3rd Eye Meditation Lounge
    Our dance party in the dark returns at a new space
  • Crysis at the Contemporary Austin
    Multimedia performance about Carl Jung, early telephones + mental health
  • The Art of Texas Cocktail Competition at Still Austin
    Watch the finals of a Texas-wide mixology competition
  • Silent Book Club at Radio East
    Silently read books together + optional sharing
  • Behind the Frame at Richesart Gallery
    Learn about the intersections between art, history, + art history

Thursday 9/26

No Humans Allowed 207
Assembler

A quickly assembled episode to commemorate No Humans Allowed’s final entry for Weird Wednesdays before shifting to Tuesdays (same time). Tune in for lots of lesser known synthpop and new wave.

Stream Assembler

Tracklist
Thomas Leer – Tight as a Drum
Our Daughter’s Wedding – Moving Windows
B Movie – Nowhere Girl
Visage – The Damned Don’t Cry
Anything Box – Living in Oblivion (the Box Mix)
Cee Farrow – Should I Love You
Xymox – Imagination
Blancmange – Waves
Icehouse – No Promises

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 nearly 200 episodes now streamable in the archives on topics like and Beach Simulations, Roomba dance parties, undersea adventures + Cyber Texas.

PATREON THANKS

A huge thank-you to our Patreon subscribers Bones Malones, Amy Hayes, Katie Green, Christina Jue, Colleen MB, Lilly Ettinger, Lena Long, Amalia Litsa, 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 watching brass bands at HONK!TX, watching the eclipse at Bobo’s Snack Bar, and watching dancing forklifts at The Way of Water at Onion Creek. 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 are Leila + Brian. We make this newsletter. We do our own events, most often No Lights No Lycra (which is on hiatus but will resume), + also BYOT, a party where we share very good YouTubes (here’s a playlist from the last one). We go very hard seeing bands at SxSW (here are playlists of our favorites from 2024). 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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