Lite + Brite: 37 Eldritch Austin Events 7/11

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

This is a big week, and not simply because it includes a massive circus party, a nonprofit fair, “weirdly sexual anime,” scallywaggery, not just one but TWO open studios, SpongeBob Square Pants’ birthday party, horror burlesque, Richard Simmons cosplay, and a performance that is “part late-night talk show, part Pee-wee’s Playhouse of the Damned”—though it does indeed include all of that—BUT ALSO because it is our very own Brian’s birthday! 

Leila is writing the intro this week, so I (Leila) have free rein to talk about how great Brian is. Without him, this newsletter would have no punny event descriptions, no thematic playlists, no website, and would certainly not be closing in on six years of existence. In addition to all of that, this week Brian has created a guide to local events for flood relief. If you’re looking for ways to help out the victims of last week’s Hill Country flood, this is a good start. (And if you know of other events, please send them to us + we’ll add them.)

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 teased it last week but Brian will be part of the bill for Hot Summer Nights at the end of the month. He’ll be spinning 90s alt rock at Elysium along with three local bands: Rival Waves, Almost Famous Friends, + Freebleeder (more info here). All Hot Summer Nights shows are free and all acts are from the Austin area, it’s basically the July version of Free Week. You can see the full lineup here, there are tons of great shows across Red River venues.

Prick Up Your Ears will also return to Elysium on Thursday July 31 for another night of 00s indie + electro dancing, more details and a flyer to come.

No Humans Allowed returned to the airwaves this week with another visit to the world of ridiculous scifi walking Irish stereotype Seamus O’Cyborg. Brian created a text adventure for him to work his way through and the Kpiss chat room dictated where he went. Seamus ended up in the food court of a local orbital space station where he discovered there were no space tacos to be had, only protein bricks and desperation. All of this was soundtracked by futuristic, space-themed, food-themed italo disco, cosmic disco, + downtempo spun by Brian in between visits to orbital food courts. Listen to it on demand in the Kpiss archives here or scroll below for more info.

EVENTS WE’RE EYEING

Friday 7/11

  • Saul Ravencraft’s Damned Show at Nature’s Treasures
    “Wizard provocateur” leads variety performances in a talk show format
  • Butch Prom at the Vortex
    “Prom celebrating LGBT masculinity with drag, wrestling, music + more”
  • A Gentleman’s Education in Pleasure at Elysium
    Alternating live music + horror-themed drag w/DJ + art vendors
  • Sexual Summer 2 at Pearl St. Co-op
    “All trans lineup” of drag, fire dancers, wet t-shirt contesters, + vendors
  • Broadway Rave at 29th St. Ballroom
    For ravers into Broadway or theater kids who wanna go to the club
  • La Bamba at the Austin Motel Pool
    Watch a classic film about early rock’n’roll while floating or poolside
  • Eldritch Voyeurs at Sterling Stage
    “Lovecraftian subversions through pole dance, burlesque, + more”
  • Rituals of Light at East Side Performing Arts
    “Dance, music, film + fashion converge in a celebration of archetypal feminine power”
  • Calm Your T!ts at the Vortex
    Musical comedy that reflects on feminism’s travails here in 2025

Saturday 7/12

  • Summer Circus at Empire
    “Art meets the absurd” w/circus arts, live music, immersive performances
  • Airwaves + Outreach at TexPop
    Build community, meet the folks behind local non-profits + radio
  • Boner Ball Z at Come and Take It Live
    “XXXtreme erotic variety show” collects all the dragon balls
  • Hyde Park Storytelling at Batch
    Storytellers ply their trade in a backyard w/ASL interpreter
  • Jaws on the Water at Volente Beach
    Enjoy classic nautical horror flick while watching for deadly lake sharks
  • Pirate Night at Tiny Minotaur
    “No blaggards or bilge-rats allowed” at this pirate costume party
  • D&D Karaoke Night at Double Trouble
    Can’t decide whether to play D+D, sing karaoke, or make puppets? Do all 3
  • Richard Simmons Sparkle Stride at Lady Bird Lake Pedestrian Bridge
    Don your most Richard-y hair + dance to Barton Springs
  • A New Era at West China Tea
    Celebrate So Han from West China’s bday w/tea, food, DJ, + live music
  • Blanton All Day at the Blanton
    Art activities, storytime, discussions on art w/curators, + swing dance lessons
  • Tesla De-Badgeification at Double Trouble
    Not a fan? De-Elon your electric car w/“skilled Tesla badge removal”
  • Open Studios at Art Hub ATX
    Check out art + artists in their own studios as well as a gallery
  • Open Studios at Canopy
    Artists at Canopy open up their studios to the public
  • Opening Hours at Sherwood Forest Zine Library
    An extensive library of zines in someone’s house, friendly cat included
  • Summer Art Pop-Up at the Cathedral
    Pop-up art exhibits, DJ, vendors, flash tats, + puppies
  • Eldritch Voyeurs at Sterling Stage
    “Lovecraftian subversions through pole dance, burlesque, + more”
  • Rituals of Light at East Side Performing Arts
    “Dance, music, film + fashion converge in a celebration of archetypal feminine power”
  • Calm Your T!ts at the Vortex
    Musical comedy that reflects on feminism’s travails here in 2025

Sunday 7/13

Monday 7/14

Tuesday 7/15

  • Crazy Clown Time at Tiny Minotaur
    Dress up like a clown to take part in a mystery script table reading

Thursday 7/17

  • Queer Film Theory at the Highball
    “Basically, we ruin films for straight people + yell about the characters that made us feel gay”
  • Eternal Soul Summer at Hotel San José
    Hang outdoors as a vinyl DJ spins ‘60s soul records
  • Vogue Nights at Highland Lounge
    House of Lepore serves looks at this ballroom competition
  • (weekly) Float-In Theater at Mozart’s
    Watch movies deck-side or while floating on the lake

NHA240
Seamus O’Cyborg pt IV

The future’s most Irish detective Seamus O’Cyborg is going on a Zork-style text-based adventure through some seedy noir cityscapes. The Kpiss chat room helped us decide what actions Seamus took and where he ended up, which was in the food court of the cyber slums of the orbital station APOGEE-1. Sadly we could find no space tacos there, only protein blocks. Seamus’ adventures are accompanied by slinky + mysterious italo, downtempo, + cosmic disco tunes selected by NHA to give the adventures that special flair.

Stream Seamus O’Cyborg pt IV

Tracklist
Mecano – El Amante de Fuego
Six Cups of Rebel – Dubbe Ditten
Blackway – Follow Me
Memory Control One – Counter
Jan Turkenburg and His Pupils of the Geert Grote School – In My Spaceship
In Flagranti – In the Silver White Box
Stopp – I’m Hungry
Sharpe & Numan – Change Your Mind (LNTG Edit)
Max Coveri – One More Time (Captain’ Dub 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.

PATREON THANKS

A huge thank-you to our Patreon subscribers Robert B., Roman Gonzalez, Nick Ivons, Molly Fonseca, Lilly Ettinger, Michael Sales, Zach, Gino Scaramuzza, Erica Speegle, Jarrett Holtz, Thomas Refferson, Bones Malones, Amy Hayes, Katie Green, Christina Jue, Colleen MB, Lena Long, 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 getting ready for Prick Up Your Ears, watching the Buda Wiener Dog Races, and experiencing a toy art exhibit at Collection Rert. Follow Lite + Brite on Instagram to keep up with our adventures. We’re now on Bluesky too. Yay federation! And come chat with us and the rest of the L+B community on our Discord server (where we sometimes post stuff early too).

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, + 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 2025). 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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