Lite + Brite Monthly: October

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

October is usually one of Austin’s busiest months for events, and this year is no exception. Our next few weekly newsletters will include a lot of events, especially as we get closer to Halloween. And of course we’ll be publicly launching our extensive Austin Halloween event spreadsheet in a couple weeks. But in this email we’re listing just a few events that you might want advance notice on. (Okay, I counted, and it’s not exactly “a few.” It’s more like 45.) In October’s issue of the Monthly, we’re also featuring a new spooky playlist from Brian Blackout to set the seasonal mood, as well as assorted snippets and wisdom from Brian’s recent interview with local dungeon synth artist Assorted Potions. If you don’t know what dungeon synth is, well, there’s no time like the present to find out.

If you’re not already a subscriber to this newsletter and you want to be, click here. We send out one email 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

L+B – Spooky Times

It’s October, which means Spirit Halloween has opened its doors, it’s time to start thinking about a costume, and it is absolutely acceptable, nay encouraged, to start watching nonstop horror movies and listening to creepy music. We’ll get you started with a wide ranging mix of songs about demons, death, Bigfoot, ghosts, blood, rending garments, Lucifer in the disco probably wearing a leisure suit, The Crow, and children becoming exposed to good + evil (yikes!)

Listen on
Spotify / Apple / YouTube

Tracklist
The Horrors – The Silence That Remains
Children of the Mission – Tears
Bintangs – Demons
Bro Smith – Bigfoot
J.R.C.G. – Dogear
I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness – According to Plan
Chromatics – Glass Slipper
I:Cube – Lucifer en Discotheque
Eighth Wonder – I’m Not Scared
Killing Joke – Love Like Blood
SSQ – Tonight (We’ll Make Love until We Die)
The Golden Filter – Freyja’s Ghost
Mothermary – Pray (Curses Remix)
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult – Badlife
Flash + the Pan – Walking in the Rain
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band – A Child’s Guide to Good + Evil
The 6ths – The Dead Only Quickly Decay (with Neil Hannon)
Architrave – Rend the Garments
Orion – Higher
The Cure – Burn
Blue States – Season Song

Looking Ahead to Upcoming Events 

Our weekly newsletters will include many more listings, but here are a handful of events that we know are planned for the next month. We’re giving you the heads up now in case you want to pre-buy tickets or block off the time.

  • Oct 3: Revel in the Darkness at Laguna Gloria
    Live taping of a new podcast diving “headfirst into darker realms”
  • Oct 4: Fortlandia Opening Day at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center
    Annual interactive installation art exhibition w/a play fort theme
  • Oct 4-5: Small Plates Choreography Workshop at Ground Floor Theatre
    Short-form modern dance performances w/guided dialogue
  • Oct 4-5, 11-12, 18-19, 25-26: Speak No More at the Haskell House
    “Entirely improvised, site-specific, immersive theatre experience”
  • Oct 5: Austober Fest at Scholz Garden
    Celebrate all things German + beer w/stein holding, live polka, + sausages
  • Oct 5: Shock Treatment at We Luv Video
    Singalong to Rocky Horror follow-up set in TX, w/drag performers, costumes
  • Oct 7: Final day to register to vote in the 2024 election
    Fill out a form today; benefit for the foreseeable future
  • Oct 8: Bit Brigade at Come and Take It
    Video game speedrunners w/live responsive chiptune soundtrack
  • Oct 9: No Lights No Lycra at 3rd Eye Meditation Lounge
    Our dance party in the dark returns at a (relatively) new space
  • Oct 11: An Evening with Garfield + Friends at SAGE Studios
    Garfield-themed art by artists w/disabilities + lasagna, photo booth, tats
  • Oct 11-13: Over the Lege at Austin Scottish Rite Theatre
    Watch sketch comedy based around our own Texas Legislature
  • Oct 12: Brawlcano at Come and Take It
    “ITS PARTY WORLD RASSLIN’! Undead, unkillable, unstoppable!”
  • Oct 12: Something Something Friendship Adventure at Collection Rert
    Games + music + skits + smiles = PROFIT. Er, I mean friendship
  • Oct 12: The Austin Seance at Vespertine
    Take part in a Victorian-style séance + learn about their history
  • Oct 12: Phantom of the Fight Opera at Austin Beerworks Sprinkle Valley
    The most theatrical wrestling crew in Austin takes on the Phantom
  • Oct 12: Community Art Bash at the Elisabet Ney Museum
    Ney-inspired art by female artists + live music, tours, Erica Nix + more
  • Oct 12-13: ATX Protospiel at Emerald Tavern
    Help playtest indie board games from local designers
  • Oct 13: Home Coming at the Museum of Human Achievement
    Opening w/art by trans + intersex artists, interactive art corner, photobooth
  • Oct 17: Supermoon Crawl at Laguna Gloria/
    The brightest moon of the year illuminates performers + insect tour
  • Oct 17-18: Naked at My Age at the Vortex
    One-woman show from a senior citizen sex worker
  • Oct 18: Boner Bizarre Was an Inside (Hand) Job at Come and Take It
    Spooky-themed “perverse, grotesque, + socially unacceptable” burlesque
  • Oct 18: Bat City Witch Pageant at Elysium
    Which witch will win? Drag performers get scary + compete
  • Oct 18: Young Greg Abbott at the State Theatre
    Satirically reimagining Abbott’s early days in a musical theater format
  • Oct 19: The Unseelie Silver Gala at Dunvegan Keep
    Costumed fantasy ball w/quests + bardic performers in a magical venue
  • Oct 18-19: CandyCon at Sky Candy
    Costumed aerialists + burlesque students show off newfound skills
  • Oct 19: 7 Deadly Sins at the Long Center
    Celebrate the 7 deadly sins w/aerialists + pole dancers
  • Oct 19: Ten Year Anniversary of Hyde Park Storytelling at Batch Craft Beer
    Mark a milestone of storytellers plying their trade in a local craft beer spot
  • Oct 20: D¥ke March at the Museum of Human Achievement
    Protest “prioritizing the safety of BIPOC queers + D¥kes” w/march, workshops
  • Oct 21: First day of early voting for the 2024 election
    Whatever your affiliation, please make a plan to vote + vote early
  • Oct 21, 22, 28, + 29: Flood of Spirits at Hillside Farmacy
    Immersive theatrical performance depicting a historical flood where 50 died
  • Oct 23: No Lights No Lycra Special Extra-Dark Edition at 3rd Eye Meditation Lounge
    Celebrate Halloween w/our own lights-out dance party + creepy classics
  • Oct 23: ATXplained Live at Bass Concert Hall
    Learn all about Austin in the medium of a live podcast taping
  • Oct 24-31: The Austin Film Festival at various Austin venues
    Our city’s dedicated festival for moving pictures + those who write them
  • Oct 25: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back at the Long Center
    Watch the most loved Star Wars film w/live score from the Austin Symphony
  • Oct 25: Can I Kick It? At Republic Square
    Watch Ghostbusters w/DJ creating a new hip hop + soul score
  • Oct 25-26: Spiritualism in America at the Neill-Cochran House Museum
    Lectures on the history of spiritualism w/séance demonstration
  • Oct 26: Salvador Dali’s Naked Feast at the Vortex
    “Graze from elegantly designed food art on naked bodies”
  • Oct 26: Twister at a secret Austin location
    Secretive Halloween bash w/Twister-themed “quest + interactive experiences”
  • Oct 26: Fantastic Arcade at the Baker Center
    “Celebration of international indie + cult videogames” by Games Y’all + MoHA
  • Oct 26: Austin Diwali Bash at the Pershing
    Celebrate Indian holiday fire dancers, food, henna, live music, DJs
  • Oct 30-Nov 2: Austin Séance at the Vortex
    Take part in a Victorian-style séance + learn about their history
  • Oct 31-Nov 2: Inferni at Ground Floor Theater
    Dante-themed theater / circus arts hybrid ft “aerialists, dancers, + demons”
  • Oct 31: Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse at the Long Center
    Watch Spider-Man re-soundtracked w/live orchestra + scratch DJ
  • Nov 1: L’Inferno at Cloud Tree
    Watch a silent film-era horror flick w/a live musical score
  • Nov 1-2: Mortified at the Highball
    Folks tell tales of adolescent angst in a new comedic light

Assorted Potions Interview

While we’re more typically interviewing events producers here in our monthly newsletter, this recent interview Brian conducted with Austin dungeon synth artist Assorted Potions was too newsletter-adjacent for us to not share with you here. Despite the Halloween-centric name, through this interview we found that dungeon synth is a pretty inclusive genre that’s not always creepy, and is sometimes paired with its sister genre, “cozy synth,” which sort of feels like a Lawful Good version of dungeon synth. In the interview we touch upon how Austin and Texas’ dungeon synth scene has grown up to be the modern day juggernaut it is, with origin points at some of our favorite Austin institutions like Me Mer Mo Mondays + Tiny Minotaur. We don’t have a transcript of this interview, it’s intended to be listened to, but here are some links to go along with it.

Listen to the Assorted Potions Interview here

All-the-Time Austin Artsy Fun

Our weekly newsletter features upcoming events, but sometimes the activity you’re looking for isn’t an event at all—it’s a place that’s always there. Next time you find yourself on an afternoon when nothing special seems to be going on, you could consider checking out one of these evergreen options.

  • Tiny Minotaur
    Drinking and costumed LARPing, Dungeonsynths performing in the dungeon w/lots of lore
  • The Eureka Room
    Uniquely goofy, silly, + fun immersive games you play with a group. No spoilers!
  • Escape the Box on South Congress
    So you think you can escape boxes. Sure, but what about time traveling boxes?
  • We Luv Video
    The Alexandria Library of video rental. It’s community-run, you can rent movies or watch them in a cinema while literally surrounded by VHS tapes and DVDs.
  • The Goats at Jester King Brewery
    More a theme park geared towards folks who like refermented cherries in their beer (me) than a brewery. I have not experienced the Goat Experience, but I have seen their goats, and I approve.
  • Cathedral of Junk
    A towering achievement to collecting weird old stuff that will spark nostalgia and cause you to wonder at your last tetanus shot timing
  • West China Tea House
    In addition to their events, West China is a wonderful place just to chat with interesting and welcoming people and drink some delicious tea
  • Mayfield Park and Nature Preserve
    A lovely park + nature walk that is protected by a crack corps of dedicated peacocks and peahens. Good luck escaping without some flashy, feathery displays.
  • Laguna Gloria
    The Contemporary Austin’s outdoor sculpture garden. Culture + Nature = Profit.
  • Austin Creative Reuse Center
    A nonprofit shop where you can get any art, craft, or office supplies you can imagine for literal pennies. Eat your heart out, Office Despot.
  • Museum of the Weird
    It’s right there on Dirty 6th but worth a visit. From famous fake paleontology to recreations of horror film sets, there’s lots to see.
  • James Turrell’s Skyspace
    Like Turrell’s best works, this is an art experience which unfolds slowly over time. Watch as the changing colors of sunset remake the space.

Thanks to our Patreon subscribers

A huge thank-you to our Patreon subscribers Jason & Luciana, 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 (every second and fourth Wednesday of the month), + 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 time, champions

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