Lite + Brite: 16 Optimal Austin Events 1/3
Hello, what’s up, and welcome to the Lite + Brite newsletter.
Happy 2025! We’ve emerged from that hazy NYE week to stumble happily into the first weekend of January. That means it’s Free Week downtown, where you can check out tons of local musical acts for zero dollars + make an informed choice when you vote for the best Austin bands in the Chronicle’s annual Music Awards. It’s also David Bowie’s birthday, which means for the 10th year DJ Sue will be spinning a bunch of Ziggy Stardust’s best glam, folk, + new wave tunes on vinyl. We’ve also got lots of our favorite usual suspects in Austin like Silent Book Club, Open Studios at Canopy, One Page Salon, Fantasy Karaoke, + Karaoke Underground, so if you’ve got energy left it’s time to get out there.
If you’re looking for our January monthly edition, it’s still in the oven but will be ready soon, along with rip-roaring playlists of both of our favorite songs from 2024. We’ll get it to your hands piping hot early next week so keep your eyes on the inbox horizon.
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
We’re getting back into the swing of things for the new year. First off, here are all our January + February dates at 3rd Eye Meditation Lounge, where we’ll be holding No Lights No Lycra 2nd + 4th Wednesdays. No Humans Allowed will be returning next week with a best of music from 2024 edition. While you wait you can still check out Discoveries 2024 which was all the OLD italo disco, house, new beat, + synthpop Brian discovered + loved in 2024.
EVENTS WE’RE EYEING
Friday 1/3
- Armadillo Forever Closing Night Party at the South Congress Hotel
Celebrate Armadillo HQ w/live music, free drinks + DJs - The Muttcracker (Sweet!) at the Vortex
An all-dog not-at-all-ballet production of the holiday favorite - Free Week on Red River
Three nights of free local live music at Austin’s finest downtown venues - International Gem + Jewelry Show at the Palmer Events Center
“Rock-bottom prices” (get it?) on precious stones + jewelry
Saturday 1/4
- Art Explosion Party at 4211 Todd Ln.
Explosive party w/live music, painting, lasers, vendors, + many performers - Bowie Birthday Bash at Drinks Lounge
Vinyl DJ pays tribute to the Thin White Duke on his bday - Optimal Optimism at Collection Rert
Start the new year right w/optimism-themed art show - Open Studios at Canopy
Artists at Canopy open up their studios to the public - Fantasy Karaoke at Tiny Minotaur
Bard-hosted fantasy costumes-only karaoke - Karaoke Underground at Knomad
Sing karaoke to your favorite punk, indie + alt classics - The Muttcracker (Sweet!) at the Vortex
An all-dog not-at-all-ballet production of the holiday favorite - Free Week on Red River
Three nights of free local live music at Austin’s finest downtown venues - International Gem + Jewelry Show at the Palmer Events Center
“Rock-bottom prices” (get it?) on precious stones + jewelry - (weekly thru 3/1) The Rose at Coldtowne
Annual improv show parodying reality romance TV
Sunday 1/5
- Opun Mic Night at Coldtowne
Take the stage w/puns, improv, + other forms of comedy - International Gem + Jewelry Show at the Palmer Events Center
“Rock-bottom prices” (get it?) on precious stones + jewelry
Tuesday 1/7
- One Page Salon at Radio Coffee + Beer
Hear local writers read their works in progress + published works - Silent Book Club at Vintage Books + Wine
Silently read books together + optional sharing - Hamlet at Sterling Stage
An immersive, modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Wednesday 1/8
- Word Perv at Sterling Stage
Storytelling + variety show about gender + sexuality
Thursday 1/9
- Hamlet at Sterling Stage
An immersive, modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet
No Humans Allowed 217
Discoveries 2024
This week on NHA we review some of our favorite records we “discovered” in 2024, meaning old records that were new to us. Full year in review of new stuff coming up later, but this is for all those old synth records we heard for the first time in the course of 2024 and wished we’d known for years.
Tracklist
Tim Carleton – Opus No. 1
The Farm – Groovy Train (club mix)
Facts & Fiction – Give Me the Night
Bonnie Tyler – Married Man (Lauren Murada Edit)
Mental Cube – So This Is Love
Techno 90 – Everybody Dancing (Smooth Compacto Edit)
Level 2 – Cool Boy (YPS Edit)
Muriel Dacq – Tropique (remix)
Intelligence Dept – Sleeping City
Blancmange – Lose Your Love
Emmanuel – Es Mi Mujer (Orion Agassi Edit)
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 200 episodes now streamable in the archives on topics like and Beach Simulations, Roomba dance parties, undersea adventures + Cyber Texas.
No Lights No Lycra ATX 176
w/Brian Blackout
Recorded live in the dark at 3rd Eye Meditation Lounge on December 11, 2024
Listen to NLNL ATX 176 on Mixcloud
Tracklist
Blue Gas – Shadows from Nowhere
Risqué – Starlight
Paladin – Third World
Sia – Cloud (Plastic Plates Remix)
White Town – Your Woman
Wild Nothing – Headlights on
Mayer Hawthorne – Designer Drug
Rod Stewart – Do Ya Think I’m Sexy
Crystal Waters – 100% Pure Love
Duke Dumont – I Need U (100%) (Skreamix)
Sky Ferreira – Everything Is Embarrassing (Krystal Klear Remix)
Luke Million – Ice Ice Arnie (Cool Party)
Deee-Lite – Groove Is in the Heart
Confidence Man – Control
Miami Sound Machine – Rhythm Is Gonna Get You
Emmanuel – Es Mi Mujer (Orion Agassi Edit)
Fleetwood Mac – Everywhere (Psychedmagik Edit)
De Lux – Act of Defiance
Holy Ghost! – Hold on
LCD Soundsystem – Yeah (Crass Version)
The Dare – Perfume
The Rapture – House of Jealous Lovers
Hot Hot Heat – Talk to Me, Dance with Me
MGMT – Kids
Eugene Tambourine – Blue Lagoon
Acos CoolKAs – Free Flight
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 it in the Austin Chronicle. You can listen to the kind of music we play over on Brian’s Mixcloud.
PATREON THANKS
A huge thank-you to our Patreon subscribers Gino Scaramuzza, Qiu, Erica Speegle, Mitch Rudea, Jarrett Holtz, Thomas Refferson, Dale Markowitz, Jason & Luciana, Bones Malones, Amy Hayes, Katie Green, Christina Jue, Colleen MB, Lilly Ettinger, Lena Long, Amalia Litsa, Alexander Freed, 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 visiting the Sherwood Forest Zine Library, admiring the site-specific art at Creek Show, and exploring the city on Austin Studio Tour. 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, Concept Animals’ ATX Art for You for gallery openings + artist talks, 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.