Dirt Road to Psychedelia at Republic Square Park

Tonight, the Austin Film Society, the Downtown Austin Alliance and the Austin Parks Foundation will present a free screening of Austinite Scott Conn's Dirt Road to Psychedelia: Austin Texas During the 1960s.

A hit at last year's Austin Film Festival, Dirt Road chronicles the rise of Austin's 1960s youth movement. During that period, artists like 13th Floor Elevators, Conqueroo, Shiva's Headband and Janis Joplin practiced their drug-fueled craft at the Vulcan Gas Company, a legendary pshych rock venue on Congress Avenue that preceded the Armadillo World Headquarters as Austin's countercultural mecca. Though vintage photos, performance footage and interviews, Dirt Road traces Austin's musical heritage from blues to folk to psychedelic rock.

The screening is free, and begins at dusk. If you get there by 7pm, you can also catch live music by a 13th Floor Elevators cover band called the "Tommy Hall Schedule".

If you can't make it out to the park tonight, you can buy the film on DVD--or better yet, as a DRM-free digital download--from the always awesome b-side.