Lite + Brite: 39 Phantasmic Austin Events 9/5
Hello, what’s up, and welcome to the Lite + Brite newsletter.
This week, Austin’s event organizers dare to ask the important questions. For example: Who can build the most aerodynamic paper plane? Do turtles understand the concept of racing? How many dances can you fit into 40 minutes? What if cheerleaders were goth and/or gay? Can you handle the heat? What do you do if your bathroom hideout is surrounded by evil? Are you willing to stay up all night in the name of cycling tradition? How shall we respond to the vague horrors of our world? How much cooler does an immersive art installation get when you add DJs and drinks? How many artists does it take to paint a single portrait of a dog? Does Austin have something for everyone or what? Find out the answers to all this and more by attending some events!
If you want a birdseye view of the month, the September Monthly now lives on our website, including a Levitation playlist and our beginner-friendly guide to Austin news sources worth following.
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
EVENTS WE’RE EYEING
Friday 9/5
- Austin Weird Art Tour leaving from 2324 Studios
A tour bus takes you through architectural highlights of Weird Austin - DJ Love Night at Tweedy’s
DJs spinning italo disco vinyl all night long - Heavy Heavy Heavy at Future Front
Musical performance + sculptural art opening combo - Student Exhibition at dadaLab
Live music, visuals, + art by students and regulars from dadaGeek’s classes - Paper Plane Contest at Nickel City
Show off your paper aircraft engineering skills + win prizes - Opun Mic Night at Coldtowne
Take the stage w/puns, improv, + other forms of comedy - Body Mechanics at 4211 Todd Ln.
Body Mechanics folks spinning dark techno + industrial - Brown Sabbath at Mohawk
Pay tribute to Ozzy w/metal DJs, t-shirt contest, + cover band - Small Plates Choreography Festival at Ground Floor Theatre
Short modern dance performances designed to be performed in Austin specifically - Pillar of Fire at the Vortex
Teen-produced scifi play written by Fahrenheit 451 author - We Need to Do Something at Crashbox
DIY play about a family trapped in a bathroom surrounded by evil - Big Travis County Fair at the Travis County Expo Center
Circus performers, vendors, magicians, fair rides, + “foam zone”
Saturday 9/6
- Community Day at the Long Center
Free block party w/ community partners, performances + family-friendly activities - American Cheese Fondue at DORF
Watch artists create portraits of dogs in an assembly line fashion - Homocoming at Cheer Up Charlie’s
DJs, cheerleaders, + drag performers “queer up country” w/homecoming twists - Bat Fest at the Congress Ave. Bridge
Dress up battily for live music, live bats, DJs, + the “Austin Bats Dance Team” - Phantasma Nights at Mesmerize
Illuminated live music performed in a darkened immersive art space - 43rd Annual Full Moon Bike Ride at the Pfluger Bridge
19-mile group bike ride in the middle of the night lit by the full moon - Back to Goth Night at Elysium
Kick off the school year with “goth cheerleaders,” DJs + vendors - Cherries 3rd Anniversary Party at Double Trouble
Skate video premier, DJ, bouncy house, flash tats, + raffle - Night Market + Fantasy Karaoke at Tiny Minotaur
Bard-hosted fantasy costumes-only karaoke w/vendor market - Karaoke Underground at Knomad
Sing karaoke to your favorite punk, indie + alt classics - Small Plates Choreography Festival at Ground Floor Theatre
Short modern dance performances designed to be performed in Austin specifically - Pillar of Fire at the Vortex
Teen-produced scifi play written by Fahrenheit 451 author - We Need to Do Something at Crashbox
DIY play about a family trapped in a bathroom surrounded by evil - Big Travis County Fair at the Travis County Expo Center
Circus performers, vendors, magicians, fair rides, + “foam zone” - (weekly thru 11/29) Goat Yoga at Tiny Minotaur
“We call out to the beasts of the land to come forth and JOIN US!”
Sunday 9/7
- Under the Blood Moon at Ani’s Day + Night
Undead 20-piece band, tats, + “group howling at the moon to protest the vague horrors of our world” - Goth Prom at Hyperreal Film Club
Like prom but lots more black, w/tarot, goth corsages, goth DJ, + “forbidden libations” - Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival at the Far Out Lounge
Spicy live music + DJs accompany vendors of hot sauces + other hot eats - Lagers + Literature at Meanwhile Brewing
Vending by local authors, booksellers, + printmakers, beer launch, zine making - Party Business 2 at Tiny Minotaur
LARP cozily as a halfling who’s planning a festival (costumes mandatory) - We Need to Do Something at Crashbox
DIY play about a family trapped in a bathroom surrounded by evil - Big Travis County Fair at the Travis County Expo Center
Circus performers, vendors, magicians, fair rides, + “foam zone” - (weekly thru 9/21) Splashdance at the Austin Motel
Poolside aerobics with Austin’s most creative aerobics instructor
Monday 9/8
- ATX Short Film Showcase at 29th St. Ballroom
The films are short, the filmmakers are Texan + of varying heights - Film Strip Club at the Austin Public Library
Learn how to make projected stop motion art on film strips
Tuesday 9/9
- OVO at Zilker Botanical Garden
Watch a pop-up circus arts performance adapted from Cirque du Soleil - Astronomy on Tap at Celis Brewery
Gather + talk astronomy w/fellow enthusiasts in the orbit of some beer
Wednesday 9/10
- Greetings from Queer Mountain at Cheer Up Charlie’s
Storytelling + performances by local queer athletes - Dance Carousel at Ground Floor Theatre
Bite-size modern dance w/40 one-minute dances by 10 choreographers
Thursday 9/11
- Knife Carving Workshop at Buzz Mill Coffee
Carve out some time in your calendar for this useful event - Fusebox Artist Salon at dadaLab
Hear about upcoming works & chat w/artists, see live music + visuals - Creative Release Workshop at Mira Mira
Learn to tap into your creativity w/art + mindfulness workshop - Turtle Racing at Little Woodrow’s Southpark
“The slowest, most exciting race” that no hare could win - Dance Carousel at Ground Floor Theatre
Bite-size modern dance w/40 one-minute dances by 10 choreographers
No Humans Allowed 248
Jacking in
This week we feature a mix of music for hacking, surfing the net, or riding the information superhighway. Jack in and press play to hear some bleep, techno, + nu italo.
Tracklist
The Shamen – Hyperreal Selector
Zillas on Acid – Crawl
Propaganda – Frozen Faces (Planet B Edit)
Soulwax – Essential Six
Black Light Smoke – Girls Dance with Computer
Hannes Lohrer – IT Support
Black Spuma – Data Life
Roby J – Public Domain Age
The Irresistible Force – War & Peace Live
LFO – LFO (the Leeds Warehouse Mix)
Force Legato – System (v.1.0.)
Mental Cube – Q (Hysteric 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 Andrew Creswell, 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, Alexander Freed, Kristen Backor, Timon A., 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.