Lite + Brite: 55 Preheated Austin Events 8/28

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

It’s been a rough week in popular culture with the passing of Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, and Optimus Prime, and I (Brian) was reminded of the time way back in 2016 where I was drafted by my friends to hold a dance party vigil for David Bowie that snowballed into a three day cathartic extravaganza across multiple NYC venues. People who are looking to remember the passing of some of our icons will have a few chances to do so this week. No doubt there are bigger plans in the works that take more than a handful of days to throw together, so keep an eye out. I need to hear 9 to 5 approximately one million times in the next 30 days to feel any sort of relief. In the meantime, if you need relief immediately, you can get an all-vinyl Dolly-inspired party, a Dolly clip show + contest up here in North Loop, and tonight’s final edition of the Rocky Horror Puppet Show.

It’s not all death! Tiny Minotaur is paying tribute to one of our favorite recent book series (Dungeon Crawler Carl). More than a hundred vendors of Japanese food + anime items are descending on Far Out. You’ve got modern dance performances about our relationship to our more numerous six-legged neighbors (possibly some eight-legged ones too), sacrilegious pole dancers with live serpents, a great lineup at the annual 29th Street Block party, and a party that promises to sate your sadness with panty hose, pet psychics, and grilled cheese sandwiches. And that’s just scratching the surface, scroll on for much more.

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 8/28

Saturday 8/29

  • Preheat at Hyperreal Film Club
    Film festival celebrating modern choreography + dance in film
  • Austin D¥ke March at the Vortex
    “Vendors, performers, raffles, speaker” ending in a march
  • I Cry the Body Electric at Factory on 5th
    Nude figure drawing, live painting, storytelling, + art installations
  • In the Belly of the Beetle at Mass Gallery
    Paintings + modern dance examine our relationship with bugs
  • Austin Latinx Micro-Book Festival at Resistencia Bookstore
    Readings, storytime, workshops, + book signings highlight Latinx writers
  • Old Rock Store Listening Party at SquareRut Kava Bar – Oak Hill
    Site-specific evening of a podcast exploring Austin’s ghostly comings + goings
  • No Diving x Big Country Pool Hang at 1705 Hether St.
    Pool party w/free beverages + vinyl exotica DJ
  • Dog Days of Summer at Jackalope South Shore
    Vendors, puppy “kissin’ booth,” + multi-heat corgi racing
  • Stargazing Party at St. Elmo
    See the stars through big fancy telescopes, plus food trucks
  • Zero Proof Battle of the Bartenders at Hanghart
    Austin’s best mixologists compete to make cocktails w/no alcohol
  • BEWM for the People at Something Cool Studios
    Commemorative fundraiser w/live street art being made
  • 29th Street Block Party at 29th St. Ballroom
    Free live music, DJs, + artists covering the Velvet Underground
  • Hide + Glow at Sign Bar
    Nighttime scavenger hunt w/DJ + “glow-themed cocktails”
  • Over the Top at Cheer Up Charlie’s
    Carnival vendors, DJs, games, drag, burlesque, + “sudsy wrestling”
  • Texas Roller Derby at the Travis County Expo Center
    Roller derbyists murderously smash their way through banked track
  • Austin Photo Walkers at Epoch Coffee
    Join a photo walk to explore + photograph North Loop + its environs
  • Creative Departure at Flourish
    Phone-free conversations on art + art-making environment
  • Haus of Brimstone at Stage Austin
    “If pole dance + live serpents are your thing” w/profane drag + burlesque
  • Otaku Food Fest at Far Out Lounge
    Celebrate anime + Japanese street food w/100+ vendors + sumo tourney
  • The Front Festival at various venues
    Films, music, + experiences by Texas women + LGBTQ+ folks
  • Falling Down the Mountain of Great Storms at the Rosette
    Play w/cajun music, “herons flying around” and human-animal hybrids
  • Escape the Box at the Texas State Capitol
    Solve time-traveling puzzles w/friends while exploring the statehouse
  • Le Garage Sale at the Palmer Events Center
    Fashion shopping bonanza with an eye for gallic naming

Sunday 8/30

  • Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Fest at Radio East
    Spicy live music + hot sauce contests accompany vendors of hot sauces
  • Oita Japan Summer Festival at the Long Center
    Celebrate Austin’s sister city w/Japanese culture, martial arts, music, + dance
  • Free Day of Dance at Ballet Austin
    Free classes for beginners across many different styles of dancing
  • Dolly Tribute at We Luv Video
    Remembering Queen Dolly through film clips, performances, costume contest
  • Creative Resistance Kickoff at Hyperreal Film Club
    Modern dance films explore creative resistance through movement
  • All Boats Bloom at Auditorium Shores
    Site-specific modern dance inspired by the landscape of Lady Bird Lake
  • Scent Lab at Future Front
    “Feel present” by learning about aromatherapy + making mandalas
  • The Front Festival at various venues
    Films, music, + experiences by Texas women + LGBTQ+ folks
  • Escape the Box at the Texas State Capitol
    Solve time-traveling puzzles w/friends while exploring the statehouse
  • Le Garage Sale at the Palmer Events Center
    Fashion shopping bonanza with an eye for gallic naming
  • (weekly thru 9/13) Splash Dance at the Austin Motel
    Poolside aerobics with Austin’s most creative aerobics instructor

Wednesday 9/2

  • America in 50 Books at First Light
    Conversations about “what books tell us about American life”

Thursday 9/3

  • Fragile Rock at 3Ten ACL Live
    Live band of puppets perform new sensitive rock. Zero Fraggles
  • Llorona’s Diner at Lynny’s
    “Down in the dumps? Kick off yer pumps” w/pet psychic, grilled cheese
  • Shock Therapy: Mirage at Elysium
    Drag performers give a loving tribute to Siouxsie Sioux
  • Sipping Sapphic at Butterfly Bar
    “Sapphic fashion show,” live music, DJs, tarot, + vendors
  • Woodcarving Workshop at Buzz Mill
    Get into the “mindful art of knife carving.” Also hey, free knife!
  • Testify at Barrel O’ Fun
    Storytelling about living with things you can’t fix
  • Scent Lab at Future Front
    “Feel present” by learning about aromatherapy + making mandalas
  • Kung Fu Cowgirl at the Hillside Theater
    Original musical combining Broadway, martial arts, + Texas
  • Present Perspective Project at the Dougherty Arts Center
    Modern dance performance explores fusion + different moods

Friday 9/4

NHA292
The Vice City of Our Dreams

This episode we return to the Miami of Our Dreams, eh but let’s just call it the Vice City of Our Dreams this time around. Not the real grounded places, but the ones we’ve all pieced together in our minds through hours of aimless video game night driving and teal and fuchsia drenched crime television. We recreated a soundtrack for this liminal world in the palette of the 1980s in all its various forms. Useful for soundtrack your future hijinx, virtual or otherwise…

Stream the Vice City of Our Dreams

Tracklist
The Church – Reptile
Makoto Matsushita – One Hot Love
Doc Holliday – City Night (Cap’ Edit)
Luna – Recuerdos (Nazario Edit)
The Flirts – You & Me
Saâda Bonaire – Invitation
Marcella Bella – Nell’aria (Seedy J Edit)
The Alan Parsons Project – Pipeline (Alkalino Edit)
Whitesnake – Is This Love (Coutel Edit)
Peter Gabriel – Games Without Frontiers
Dolly Parton – Potential New Boyfriend

No Humans Allowed is Brian Blackout’s award-winning, 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 Liz, Melissa Dunn, Kat, James Gray, Emily Heddleson, Andrew Creswell, Robert B., Roman Gonzalez, Nick Ivons, Molly Fonseca, Lilly Ettinger, Michael Sales, Zach, Gino Scaramuzza, Erica Speegle, Thomas Refferson, Bones Malones, Katie Green, Christina Jue, Colleen MB, Alexander Freed, and Kristen Backor. We’re deeply grateful for your support, which allows us to do things like “pay our Beehiiv 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 attending a classic video game fest, admiring a flock of Purple Martins, and checking out some of the unique activities we could find in the UK. 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 and Side by Sideshows for live music, The Darker Side of Austin for goth and metal stuff, Concept Animals’ ATX Art for You for gallery openings + artist talks, ATX Theatre for plays, and Superfantastica for weird Austin places + things. 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 2026). 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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