Lite + Brite Monthly: February
Hello, what’s up, and welcome to the monthly edition of the Lite + Brite newsletter.
We’ve always got something for you in the pages of our newsletters, but it’s February, and that means it’s about to be jam-packed with stuff to do. Austin’s best weather is ahead of us for the next few weeks so things will be coming fast and furious. We’ve got all that plus we’re marking the occasion of February with a crushworthy mixtape, er mixplaylist. Maybe just mix? Maybe we’ll dub it onto cassette? Anyway love is in the air, and we dare you to try to be in love with Austin while listening to this mix.
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
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.
- Jan. 14-Feb. 15: FronteraFest at Hyde Park Theatre
“Alternative, offbeat, new, and just plain off-the-wall fringe theatre” - Feb. 7: Winterfell Night at Tiny Minotaur
GoT-inspired cosplay, photobooth, live musc, + snow machine(!) - Feb. 7: The 24 Carrot Show at Kick Butt Coffee
“Satirical, sex-positive clownery,” burlesque, + lots of carrots - Feb. 7-9: PrintEXPO at Blue Genie
Buy + view art by a wide array of printmakers - Feb. 8: The Moth Experience at the Long Center
Musical + multimedia performers tell stories about/inspired by moths - Feb. 8: A Court of Drag and Dropkicks at Highland Lounge
“All-inclusive professional wrestling w/a side of drag” - Feb. 8: Cirque Delecta at Sterling Stage
Variety acts “from Burlesque to Pole to Clown + Circus Arts” - Feb. 8: Community Day at ACL Live
Get a tour of the inner workings of ACL Live + live music, food - Feb. 10: Roller Rodeo Disco at Pins + Wheels at Playland
Rollerskate to your favorite country + disco w/the Neon Rainbows crew - Feb. 12: No Lights No Lycra at 3rd Eye Meditation Lounge
Dance in the dark w/L+B to some of our favorite love songs - Feb. 12: The Austin Salon at 1109 Angelina St.
Discussions w/UT prof on the biological mechanics behind love - Feb. 12: Fragile Rock at Hotel Vegas
Watch puppets perform emo live, make your own puppets, or sadness - Feb. 13: Lore at Central Machine Works
Choral performances “celebrating cryptids, critters, and folklore” - Feb. 13: Galentine’s Day at Remedy
Gals gather for friendship bracelets, book swaps, waffles, + compliments - Feb. 14: Boner Giallo at Come and Take It Live
If arty Italian horror films get you uh, excited, this is your moment - Feb. 14: Valentine’s Rave at Indra’s Awarehouse
Valentine’s Day dance party w/“a drizzle of aerialists + dancers” - Feb. 14: Love Bites at Tiny Minotaur
Buffy-inspired Valentine’s vampire hijinx, karaoke, games - Feb. 14-15: Mortified ATX at the Highball
Folks tell tales of adolescent angst in a new comedic light - Feb. 14-16: Variations on a Love Theme at First Street Studios
Modern dance + chamber classical performances about love - Feb. 15: Twilight: The Aerial Show at Sky Candy
Finally, someone puts sparkly vampires up in the air - Feb. 15: Wild Shapes Night at Tiny Minotaur
Nocturnal animal-inspired costume night - Feb. 15: Doom Forge Day at Jester King
Celebrate brutality w/metal bands, vikings, witches, fires, + live smithing - Feb. 15: 9th Annual Lez Prom at Spiderhouse Ballroom
Dedicated prom for queer women + NB folks, complete w/prom portraits - Feb. 15: The Art Market: An Immersive Gallery at Bolm Arts
An event reenvisioning Bolm as a market for immersive art - Feb. 19-23: OUTsider Fest at the Vortex
Film fest focusing on outsider “queerdo transmedia art” - Feb. 21-23: Nosferatu Festival at Kick Butt Coffee
Celebrate horror classic w/batty bands, screenings, + vendors across town - Feb. 22: Fusebash at Distribution Hall
Fusebox’s gala w/“live performances, immersive experiences” + special menu - Feb. 22: Come and Shave It at various eastside bars
Facial hair contests held at bars across East Austin - Feb. 22: Austin Modern Home Tour at houses throughout Austin
Tour and see the insides of fancy modern houses around town - Feb. 22: Celebrate Black Austin at Kenny Dorham’s Backyard
Historical walking tours, block party, art, + DJs honor Austin’s Black community - Feb. 22: Carnaval Brasileiro at Speakeasy
Celebrate Carnaval+Mardi Gras w/traditional music, costumes, + dancers - Feb. 22: Short Film Fest at Hyperreal Film Club
Hyperreal-curated fest featuring short films + music videos - Feb. 24: Twin Peaks Night at Hotel Vegas
Celebrate all things Twin Peaks w/live covers, photobooth, pie baking contest - Feb. 26: No Lights No Lycra at 3rd Eye Meditation Lounge
Our own dance party in the dark returns to 3rd Eye - Feb. 28: Prick Up Your Ears at Elysium
DJs spinning early 00s dancepunk, indie, + electroclash sleaze - Mar. 1: Fight Opera at Austin Beerworks
Dramatically silly wrestlers seek to evolve metallically - Mar. 2: Texas Standard 10th Birthday Party at Scholz Garden
TX-themed food+drink, live music, custom poems, “mobile recording booth”
L+B 09 – Crush Tape
It’s February, which means H-E-B will be full of cards + chocolate + flowers, but what better time to touch upon the time-honored tradition of the mixtape for your crush. Sure, it’s kind of a pain to use cassette tapes these days (more power to you if you have that kind of dedication) so we’ve distilled a mixtape worth of crushable songs into some of the places people stream music in the era of modern convenience.
Listen on: Spotify / Apple / YouTube
Tracklist:
Side A
Carpoolparty – We Are in Love
Magdalena Bay – How to Get Physical
Nvdes – May and June
I Know Leopard – Lover Automatic
Donny Benét – Konichiwa
Korallreven – Honey Mine ft. Victoria Bergsman
Runners Club 95 – Good Time
Unrest – Make Out Club
The Replacements – I Will Dare
Orange Juice – Lovesick
Henry Badowski – Henry’s in Love
A Flock of Seagulls – Space Age Love Song
Icehouse – Electric Blue
The Cure – Burn
Side B
Secret Shine – Deep Thinker
Blueboy – River
Fontaines D.C. – Favourite
Choir Boy – Happy to Be Bad
The Go-Betweens – Bachelor Kisses
The Mary Onettes – Love’s Taking Strange Ways
The Avalanches – Since I Left You
Stevie Wonder – All I Do
Tennishero – Midnight Love
Discovery Zone – Dance II
Sally Shapiro – I Know
La Bionda – I Wanna Be Your Lover
Unique – What I Got Is What You Need
Sister Sledge – Thinking of You
Justine & the Victorian Punks – Still You
The Velvet Underground – After Hours
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 with an afternoon when nothing special seems to be going on, you could consider checking out one of these evergreen options.
- Mesmerize
An interactive dream-like world made of site-specific installations by 15+ local artists - Hyperreal Film Club
A clubhouse for weird cinema, with oddball screenings four nights a week - 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 Lilly Ettinger, Michael Sales, Zach, Gino Scaramuzza, Erica Speegle, Jarrett Holtz, Thomas Refferson, Dale Markowitz, Jason & Luciana, Bones Malones, Amy Hayes, Katie Green, Christina Jue, Colleen MB, 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 (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.