What's On in Bristol
Gig guide & event listingsBristol's local and trusted what's on guide.
Events in Bristol
Headfirst is Bristol's leading gig guide with a freshly launched online ticket shop. We work directly with the city's promoters to provide the most up-to-date guide what's on in Bristol you'll find. The events calendar includes all events happening in Bristol tonight and for the forthcoming weekend. If you're a musician, band member or club night organiser be sure to add your event to the Headfirst Bristol calendar.
Made famous by the legendary Lakota, Bristol's warehouse events are the keystone to the city's clubbing culture. These no-frills venues are the place to see Bristol's house and techno at it's best. If you need addmission to forthcoming warehouse parties, you can buy Blue Mountain tickets here.
Made famous by the legendary Lakota, Bristol's warehouse events are the keystone to the city's clubbing culture. These no-frills venues are the place to see Bristol's house and techno at it's best. If you need addmission to forthcoming warehouse parties, you can buy Blue Mountain tickets here.
Gig Tickets
Bristol has always had it's fair share of what's on resources. While paper-based listings magazines like Venue and forums like Hijack Bristol favoured certain musical niches, Headfirst was Bristol's first truely comprehensive what's on resource. Our listings not only go far into the future (click on a date in the calendar) but also provide some great last minute resources. If you're planning a night out at short notice please see our list of live music tonight and events listings for this weekend.
Venues like Colston Hall and Thekla usually get most of the attention when Bristol's gigs are discussed online. Headfirst aims to put the focus on Bristols smaller live music venues. Here, you can buy tickets for concerts at Bristol's Louisiana and Exchange or browse our entire Bristol gig list.
Venues like Colston Hall and Thekla usually get most of the attention when Bristol's gigs are discussed online. Headfirst aims to put the focus on Bristols smaller live music venues. Here, you can buy tickets for concerts at Bristol's Louisiana and Exchange or browse our entire Bristol gig list.
Gig Of The Week
What's On: Featured Bristol Events
Hodge and Mor Elian play their second back to back session at The Black Swan this month, following an explosive first encounter in London last November. A pioneer of the ‘Bristol sound’ that’s taken techno by storm, Hodge returns home after his latest release for Livity Sound with Laurel Halo. A staggering showcase of high-speed, rolling techno, the EP’s trippy synths flicker against backdrops of dubby, washed-out textures and grating industrial rhythms.
Like her counterpart, Israeli-born selector Mor Elian wears her influences on her sleeve, fusing electro, rave and acid influences. Sparks will fly when these these two experimental talents collide at Method LAB on 25th Jan with Metrist and Akiko Haruna in support.
🎫 Tickets: hdfst.uk/E50251
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PLU mark their first party of the season this Valentine's after their beyond-choice mad miran and Paquita Gordon bookings late last year.
Expect off-kilter, jagged fusions with Diamin in the mix at Dare to Club, where melancholic new-wave sensibilities work side by side with techno rhythms.
The Buenos Aires-based selector fluctuates between throbbing deep house, jangling acid cuts and 90s electro and breaks with a naturalistic atmosphere, melding tribalistic percussion with an uncanny, transcendental ambience. Don't miss Diamin's long overdue European debut after making waves in Argentina's underground with residencies at New Trash and Lacura.
🎫 Tickets: hdfst.uk/E50268
🎧 Listen: soundcloud.com/diamantegrafito
New Years Eve at the Swan is all about heavy-sub cross-genre niceness from the Psyched collective, pulling together local dub and steppas outlets Hold Tight Records and Dub From Above with DnB/Neurofunk firestarters Suck My Donk and the ruthless kicks, snares and bass of Kurrupt Recordings' Falling Abyss
Click the link for full lineup and maybe some £10 tickets if you're quick:
🎫 TICKETS: hdfst.uk/E50462
All 3 rooms of the Swan will be running things into the red with 3 heavyweight sounds; RC1, NSL Sound Void and Firmly Rooted. It's a family thing, at Bristol most notorious venue celebrating the best of Bristols underground music culture with the promise of 3 secret headliners still to be announced.
Milo's Planes
Howling Owl Records' in-house answer to Fugazi: Milos Planes make tortured bursts of deft hardcore for kicking over bins in Stokes Croft.
milosplanes.bandcamp.com/
Tickets: hdfst.uk/E50006
The Naturals
With a new album rumoured to be brewing, the success of Breakfast Records favs The Gnarwhals and punk techno deities Giant Swan have suddenly turned the Naturals into Bristol's hottest super-group
soundcloud.com/t-h-e-n-a-t-u-r-a-l-s
Photo of Wych Elm by Simon Holliday: simonholliday.com/
Boy Harsher specialise in torchlit EBM tracks for late night drives round David Lynch sets and wild ones at the Roadhouse. Set aside from their retro-fetish peers by electronics that suck in the full breadth of post-80s club DNA - Boy Harsher are the new cold wave. Since its cassette release a few years back, their anthem 'Pain' has struck a Youtube nerve to the tune of over 4 million views. It's a rare opportunity to see them at The Lanes, where ghoulish new night Damnatio Memoriae is bringing in the support of industrial strength EBMer Kontravoid for a night of minimal synth and pulsing dark rays.
Huge recommendationfor fans of: The Soft Moon, Crystal Castles, Cold Cave, Marie Davidson's Essaie Pas or anything on Minimal Wave
🎫 Tickets: hdfst.uk/E49437
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TEACHINGS FROM THE DUB MASTERS: CHANNEL ONE
There's many lessons to be learnt at Trinity Centre on Friday from survivors of UK reggae Channel One Sound System. 30 years holding ground at Notting Hill with a box of dubplates to match, this sound brings the name of Kingston's legendary Channel One Records into new decades and new scenes.
Far from 'just a roots/dub' sound system: Channel One nights are a journey - running the full gauntlet through steppas and onto harder sounds. Their Dub to Dubstep and Dub to Jungle tours paired them with RSD, Kromestar and Congo Natty (as well as beating Metalheadz and Boy Better Know and the Red Bull Culture Clash). So it's a dream partnership to see them hosted by Teachings in Dub, whose close ties with everything dubstep in Bristol has let to infamous dub crossover nights with Bandulu and Deep Medi.
Your masters of ceremony are innovators and icons in their own right, Mikey Dread & Ras KAYLEB.
🎫 Tickets: hdfst.uk/E50058
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![AKA Presents: Ishan Sound [Young Echo] tickets](https://static.headfirstbristol.co.uk/images/events/499/e49935_i54546_s3.jpg)
Also Known As light up your Monday night with an overdue homecoming headline from Young Echo's resident finger on the dials: Ishan Sound. Operating somewhere high up in murky post-dubstep ground of low-end, steppas influenced grime and dancehall takes on 140, Ishan's registered thundering anthems on Peng Sound and TectonicRecordings that stand shoulders above many Stokes Croft imitators.
Known best for his live desk dub mixes and thunderous vocal cuts with fellow Young Echo man-on-mic Rider Shafique, Ishan is Bristol through and through. Recent 12" takes on Hotline Recordings and Sector 7 Sounds hint at new developments to his signature sound - those making roads to The Crofters Rights on Monday will be rewarded in full.
🎫 Tickets: hdfst.uk/E49935
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Glasgow's Still House Plants are part of the same hyper-fertile scene as Golden Teacher, Domestic Exile & Optimo Music etc. The young trio "take cues from lo-fi R&B, off-kilter post-punk and free jazz" to create something decidedly new. They headline affairs at Cafe Kino this evening.
Cacophonous Sarcophagus host the proceedings with stellar support from fresh London duo O YAMA O and Bristol's most erratic improv troupé EP/64.
Tickets:
Buy Bristol Gig Tickets
Headfirst is the most objective Bristol gig guide on the internet. With no editorial to write, bands to interview or advertisers to please, we can focus on creating the best music listings & ticket shop this side of the Avon. From Bristol University’s music graduates playing a concert at St Georges Hall to an intimate gig at The Louisiana - we believe these events are what make Bristol special.
Bristol Nightlife & Nightclubs
Electronic music produced in Bristol has a knack of rewriting the rules and penetrating the international club scene. From Tectonic to Apple Pips to Eats Everything & Arkist - Headfirst has seen Bristol’s music scene grow and evolve since our humble beginnings in 2008.
Now Headfirst is working with Bristol’s best dance music promoters and providing a secure place to buy tickets for Bristol club nights. While Motion may catch most of the attention, Headfirst is the place to buy tickets for all Bristol's clubnights and maybe even the next Alfresco Disco party. Over the coming months we'll be adding buy tickets buttons to many of our what's on listings.
From Headfirst's Ticket Shop
Bristol Gig Venues
Nightclubs & Warehouses
Upcoming Events
Joining forces with heralded Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies, as well as Dawn Bothwell and Sally Pilkington (and even a cameo from Will Guthrie on the LP), Hen Ogledd is the latest proposition from contemporary folk hero RICHARD DAWSON.
Drawing on “medieval history, robots, romance, computer games and waterfalls”, the group are bewildering mix of olde and nu.
Qu Junktions host the event within the idiosyncratic The Brunswick Club, with support from Chilean trance-rockers GxNx - Glorias Navales, who sound like a basement Velvet Underground bootleg, in the best way possible.
🎫 Tickets: hdfst.uk/E48224
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Driven by the notion that raves should be places of dark and dizzying eccentricity, upsammy favours trippy, oddball soundscapes over floor-ready dance cuts. Though upsammy's sets shift slowly from psychedelic, washed-out ambience to slamming electro cuts and fierce drum and bass, she crafts her signature sound through a commitment to the unheimlich.
Behind the controls at De School, this Amsterdammer has taken the time and space to develop into one of today’s most defiant and intriguing selectors. And if that wasn't enough...Housework still have the highest calibre residents in the BS-postcode (take a bow Shanti Celeste, Gramrcy, Daisy Moon and Golesworthy).
🎫 Tickets: hdfst.uk/E48905
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POST-GLOBAL EXPERIMENTALISM AT ST. THOMAS CHURCH
There’s a subtle thread of Outernationalism running through the acts at the Cacophonous Sarcophagus event this Saturday.
Headlined by Jerusalem In My Heart, an A/V duo who use 4x 16mm analogue projectors alongside buzuks, modular synthesis and Arabic lamentations to conjure a singular vision of contemporary Middle Eastern folk music.
‘Post-American’ artist Porest is behind many of the greatest releases for SUBLIME FREQUENCIES, though his solo material is known for it’s scathing critique of Arab-US relations, held together by a rapid-fire barrage of samples and hot takes, presented in the form of absurdist radio plays. Not quickly forgotten…
The bill is topped off by local dub-sorceress Sunun. Her 12” of ghost-rhythms and raw, spacious rhythms just dropped on the unstoppable Bokeh Versions. Don’t miss this chance to hear her sound with the extra reverb of the 50ft high church ceilings.
Tickets here:
Like his label counterpart Andy Stott, Claro Intelecto’s work is characterised by its commitment to textural experimentation. Heavily influenced by the smooth, filtered dub of Rhythm & Sound-era techno, the sculpted curves of his early releases on Modern Love contrast sharply with the jagged and abrasive edges seen on 2017’s Exhilarator LP from Delsin Records. Committed to his Analog setup, Claro is renowned for his live sets, which weave moments of ecstatic lightness into the fold of his dark, choppy soundscapes.
Crushing electro meets emotive IDM at the Arnolfini for a very special Room 237 Bristol live showcase on Saturday. Claro Intelecto will be joined by Varg, Gábor Lázár, White Peak and Brecon.
🎫 Tickets: hdfst.uk/E49180
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Dr. Rubinstein puts her successes down to good fortune, but her infrequent mixes, and local hero status at ://about party pay testament to a wealth of skill and knowledge. Driven by her unabated love for acid, the doctor’s selections are borne from an urgent need to dance, fusing the notorious 303 wiggle with heavy basslines and coarse, industrial rhythms. Rubinstein’s sets also showcase a reflective capacity - the breakbeat journey of her September FACT mix is laced with a stunning intimacy that far surpasses the dancefloor, giving way to a deeply emotional trip.
She headlines for Shutter at The Island on Friday with Fake Doors and Little to warm the floor.
🎫 Tickets: hdfst.uk/E48825
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It’s little wonder that Harvey Sutherland’s jazzy dance cuts are endorsed by MCDE Recordings and Rhythm Section International. The self-proclaimed funk synthesist has been crafting shimmering, Chicago-tinged floorfillers with an Analog swing since 2014. Shifting slowly towards his Bermuda Trio live setup, the Melbourne native has retained the irresistible groove of his earlier works, whilst embracing a more fluid potential that's drawn comparisons with Floating Points. His latest release ‘Amethyst’ is a frenetic free-jazz journey alongside prodigal saxophonist Nubya Garcia, that sheds light upon the full depth of his influences.
Flâneur Company brings the trio to the Colston Hall foyer on Saturday for a British Heart Foundation fundraiser with Sven Atterton Music and the Noods Radio crew.
🎫 Tickets: hdfst.uk/E49370
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