Lite + Brite: 37 Uncorked Austin Events 7/18
Hello, what’s up, and welcome to the Lite + Brite newsletter.
It’s time for another big, brightly-colored batch of things to do. Note: this would potentially involve getting out of the house. Yes, yes, you are correct it is very hot. You COULD stay as cool in the pool as Holger Czukay while watching movies, burlesque, aerobicizing, being queer af, or belly flopping to become a multi-thousandaire. Ignore the heat and take in one of Mother Nature’s greatest + purplest Austin spectacles. Or just stay indoors while sending up Stranger Things + Scooby Doo, dancing to darkwave, watching people improvise musical numbers about anxiety, going nuts for Labubu (Lawhowho?), going nuts for ice cream, or engaging in a pun-filled tribute to Hunter S. Thompson complete w/an appearance by Elvis himself. Also read more about it in Our Stuff below but we’ll be taking part in next week’s Hot Summer Nights not simply as music fans + people who leave the house sometimes, but also as participants in Thursday night’s Elysium showcase.
This is a good time to remind you about our guide to making friends in Austin. One of those ways—Future Front’s annual summer community clubs series—is kicking off this week. They have topics like screenwriting, songwriting, kintsugi, analog adventures, or clownsent, which seems to be about both clowns and consent. I learned a new word! Anyway we were not paid anything to mention this, we just think meeting people is cool, + YOU are cool for reading our newsletter.
We have been curating a guide to local events for flood relief + will continue to do so. The flood-related newscycle has slowed down but people whose lives were disrupted are still struggling, and there are still many ways to help while engaging in activities you like. (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
Next week is Hot Summer Nights, the Summer iteration of January’s Free Week, where some of the city’s best venues around Red River will showcase local bands + local DJs. We’ve been including Hot Summer Nights in newsletters for years now but this year we’re part of it. Brian has been tasked with spinning 90s alt rock at Elysium on Thursday 7/24 along with three local bands: Rival Waves, Almost Famous Friends, + Freebleeder (more info here). You can see the full lineup here, there are tons of great shows across Red River venues all weekend long.
We’ve got a flyer + event info for this month’s Prick Up Your Ears, which returns to Elysium on Thursday July 31 for another night of 00s indie sleaze + electro dancing. Brian and Roi33 combine forces once again, now with no cover.
Sampling was the subject of this week’s edition of No Humans Allowed, Brian’s radio show for the world’s best (+ maybe only?) urine-themed radio station, Kpiss. He played an hour of sample-filled + sample-able downtempo, boom bap hip hop, + lofi house. Listen to it on demand in the Kpiss archives here or scroll below for more info.
EVENTS WE’RE EYEING
Friday 7/18
- Propaganda Art Market at Propaganda HQ
Celebrate disruptive, thought-provoking art at gallery opening + art market - Tokyo Groove at Ani’s Day and Night
DJs spinning Japanese music (City pop we hope?) + vendors, dating mixer - The Art Eclective at TexPop
“An exploration into the transcendent nature of art” + scrying tutorial - Recess at the Austin Public Library
Enjoy recess for grown-ups w/adult bevs, silent disco, games, cartoons, toys, crafting - Fear and Loathing in Hotel Vegas
Celebrate the spirit of Hunter S. w/live bands, screenprinting, + Elvis - PowerPints at the Highball
“Drink + learn things” at comedic talks on a variety of esoteric topics - Purple Martin Party at Round Rock Crossing Shopping Center
Half a million migratory birds flying in big ol clouds. Nature is cool - Stranger Sings at Trinity St. Playhouse
Parodical musical sendup of Stranger Things promises “justice for Barb” - Jinkies! at the Vortex
Teenagers reimagine Scooby Doo in a campy theatrical modern context
Saturday 7/19
- EmpowHER at the Courtyard
Female empowering live music, DJs, speakers, burlesque, LED + flow artists, + vendors - La Maison de Mia at 1608 Haskell St.
Art talks + an exhibition across many media, vinyl DJ, live music - Texas Roller Derby Playoffs at the Travis County Expo Center
Roller derbyists orbit a banked track for a chance to win a title + trophy - Labubu Fest at St. Elmo Brewing Co.
Labubu-crazed folks offer up thematic art, clothes, dessert, + Labubus - Darkwave Disko at Elysium
DJs from two of Austin’s biggest darkwave parties join forces - Stampede at 29th St. Ballroom
“Saddle up + join the herd” of queer line dance w/DJ, lessons, dancing all night - Plus-Size Community Clothing Swap at Future Front
Raise money for Future Front by trading in + acquiring new plus-size duds - Taste of Plant Based at Wheatsville South
Check out free samples of Wheatsville’s vegetarian offerings - Body Mechanics at 4211 Todd Ln.
DJs happily blurring the lines between a dance party + a fetish party - Games Y’all at Highland Collective
Meet up with a crew of folks who make + love indie games - Purple Martin Party at Round Rock Crossing Shopping Center
Half a million migratory birds flying in big ol clouds. Nature is cool - Stranger Sings at Trinity St. Playhouse
Parodical musical sendup of Stranger Things promises “justice for Barb” - Jinkies! at the Vortex
Teenagers reimagine Scooby Doo in a campy theatrical modern context
Sunday 7/20
- National Ice Cream Day at Fitzhugh Brewing
Any excuse to eat ice cream is a good one, + live music, family activities - Belly Flop Contest at the Rusty Tap
“Flop hard. Win big.” Floppers compete for $2k + a snazzy belt - WET at Cabana Club
Burlesque performers perform in and around a pool - La Bruce at Austin Motel
“A Big Freaky Queer AF Pool Party” - Whose Slide Is It Anyway at Fallout Theater
“Improvised lectures, zero prep” by confident “experts in nothing” - Jinkies! at the Vortex
Teenagers reimagine Scooby Doo in a campy theatrical modern context - (weekly thru 8/31) Splashdance at the Austin Motel
Poolside aerobics with Austin’s most creative aerobics instructor
Tuesday 7/22
- The Craft Night at Cheer Up Charlie’s
Craft while you watch The Craft, eat popcorn, + watch drag performers - Silent Book Club at the Brewtorium
Silently read books together + optional sharing - Astronomy on Tap at Celis Brewery
Gather + talk astronomy w/fellow enthusiasts while surrounded by beer
Wednesday 7/23
- Theater Punk at Fallout Theater
“An improvised musical play about anxiety” - Boyz of Anarchy Audition Showcase at Elysium
Check out drag kings, creatures, + jesters trying out for the Boyz of Austin - Free Week at the Jones Center
Free last-minute chance to see some contemporary art exhibits
Thursday 7/24
- The Austin Séance at First Spiritualist Church
Commune with spirits in the form of supernatural voice recordings - Water Purification Workshop at Buzz Mill Coffee
“Please bring a knife” to learn how to make potable water in the wild - Latte Art Throwdown at Creature Coffee Catering
Spectate or enter into a latte art contest for prizes + a good cause - Astronomy Uncorked at C.L. Butaud
Learn about astronomy + dark matter while surrounded by wine - Hot Summer Nights at various Red River venues
Three free nights of local bands + L+B DJs performing in Red River venues - Jinkies! at the Vortex
Teenagers reimagine Scooby Doo in a campy theatrical modern context - Free Week at the Jones Center
Free last-minute chance to see some contemporary art exhibits - (weekly) Float-In Theater at Mozart’s
Watch movies deck-side or while floating on the lake
NHA241
Oversampling
This week on NHA we’ve got an hour of hypnagogic tunes using sampling across various genres. Rich tapestries of the samplers, the sampled, + the should-be-sampled.
Tracklist
Glowing Palms – Body Moves
P.M. Dawn – Paper Doll
Black Sheep – Strobelite Honey
Daedalus – Our Last Stand
Chrome Sparks – The Meaning of Love
Trankilou – Haut-Médoc
HNNY – Happy Happy House House
Vanilla – Sure
Dimitri from Paris – Free Ton Style
Pretty Poison – In the Heat of the Night (dub mix)
Apparel Wax – LP001D2
Das Komplex – Miazsz
Kashif – Olympic Joy
Fiona Franklyn – Busted up on Love (Musica Hermosa Rework)
Mangabey – Hot Green Light
Beck – Nicotine & Gravy
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.