What's On / Bristol Gigs

Bristol Gigs

— All Bristol's Live Music

Buy tickets for Bristol's best gigs and live music.

Live music gig with great Bristol bands.

Bristol’s best gigs

Every week, the Headfirst editors trawl through all of the live music listings on the website and pick the best gigs for you to go to. Our event selections range from classical music concerts at St George’s Hall to smaller, local musician’s gigs at The Canteen or the Exchange.

Check out this week’s Bristol gig selections over on the Headfirst Facebook page and don’t forget to like us for ticket alerts and announcements about interesting bands coming to Bristol.

All tickets for this concert were sold through Headfirst Ticket Shop.

Tickets for Bristol gigs

In 2016, Headfirst Bristol launched an online ticket shop for live music events. Inspired by local cooperatives and community interest companies like the Bristol Cable and The Island, Headfirst provides an ethical and respectful place to buy tickets for gigs in Bristol. Our booking fees are low (usually 50p per ticket) and we strive to help support independent live music events as much as large concerts at venues like Bristol Beacon or Marble Factory.

Upcoming gigs in Bristol

Live music venues in Bristol

Bristol’s gig venues play an essential and often overlooked role in the city’s music scene. A spectrum of venues provides a ladder for new bands and musical talent to ascend. DIY spaces like Dareshack and Strangebrew provide a testbed for the screaming synthesisers and the guitars that will undoubtedly become part of Bristol’s future. Check out Headfirst’s Bristol venues page to discover which kind of performances and concerts you can expect from each gig venue.

First live gig for one of Bristol's best guitarists.

Our editor's top live music recommendation

Sell out warning! There’s drum solos, and then there’s a Ryosuke Kiyasu show. Armed only with two sticks and a snare the esteemed grindcore / free jazz scenester somehow summons rhythmical re-awakenings and moments of pure musical ecstasy in all that witness. RYOSUKE KIYASU at Crofters Rights.

Brutal anarcho-crust-noize like the most careening Crass moments mashed into Merzbow’s greatest power electronic ballads. Bad Breeding summon the unholy voice of disenfranchised Stevenage youth - the most crucial punk bands of the last 10 years? Essential for fans of: Flux of Pink Indians, Pissed Jeans, Killing Joke. BAD BREEDING plus supports at Exchange.

UK modal sax-punk originals inna James Chance meltdown style. Blurt and Ted Milton are still a mutant jazz hurricane to be reckoned with, 40 years on from their first release. BLURT at The Thunderbolt.

Gorgeous folk-noir awash with bowed chamber strings and otherworldly harmonies. Aussie sister duo Charm of Finches summon an indie-baroque heartache of epic proportions FFO: Kate Bush, Gillian Welch, Agnes Obel, Sufjan Stevens. Charm of Finches + Mia Kelly at Bristol Folk House.

Recommended Gigs

Mon 25th November
Pokey Lafarge at The Trinity Centre
— The Trinity Centre

Pokey Lafarge in Bristol Tickets

Tue 17th September
Yakul at The Louisiana
— The Louisiana

Yakul in Bristol Tickets

Sat 19th October
Oisin Leech at Bristol Folk House
— Bristol Folk House

Oisin Leech in Bristol Tickets

Thu 29th August
King Hannah at Strange Brew
Fri 13th September
Andrew Wasylyk & Tommy Perman at Crofters Rights
Wed 30th October
Los Bitchos at SWX
Sat 21st September
Pem at Dareshack

Gigs in Bristol today

Most of Headfirst’s visitors come to discover new bands and live music in Bristol. We’re proud to be Bristol’s most complete gig listings resource, complete with a full breakdown of gigs in Bristol today and tour dates for the next six months. A sterling selection of open mic nights (particularly along Gloucester Road), provide ample midweek entertainment for would-be talent scouts.

Sell out warning - buy tickets while you can!

Pummeling, whacked-out, 1 minute Mississippi hardcore tracks about dogs and cyclops babies. Trading politico-punk rage for a joyfully frantic weirdness; devotees of Grandma’s House, Plastics or Poison Girls will swoon in the pit for Judy. JUDY & THE JERKS, GIMIC, SNEER and TENSION at Exchange.

Sell out warning! Cerebral, meditative jazz-rap from a singular universe of the underground/overground. FKA milo & Scallop Hotel - Ferreira’s settled into the core shifting sands of self-mythologizing poetry and esoteric boom-psych, and there ain’t nothing quite like it FFO: Quelle Chris, Armand Hammer, Digable Planets R.A.P. Ferreira + AJ Suede + G's at Strange Brew.

Rapper announces our new Bristol gig guide on the microphone!
Southern Lord-signed spacious guitar brutalism. Droney and torturous sonics with Tasy Hudson’s vocals adding sweet barbs that set them apart from the crop of sludge metal machismo acts. For fans of: Divide and Dissolve, The Body, Earth. BIG BRAVE + AICHER at Dareshack.

Sell out warning! Grubby Aussie garage-pub-sludge played at near-thrash speeds with pure petroleum vocals. Pure rippers FFO: Hard-Ons, Zeke, Motörhead, Youth of Today, the Spits, Amyl and The Sniffers. C.O.F.F.I.N + PIZZATRAMP + BRASHER at Exchange.


Local bands and musicians

Local musicians are the lifeblood and new energy that constantly rejuvenates Bristol’s venues and performance spaces. Graduates from Bristol University’s Music course and BIMM provide regular injections of talent ranging from electronic music producers to classically trained pianists and orchestral musicians. Some of Bristol’s most successful bands are the first to point out that their inspiration comes from other local bands and gigs they’ve attended; with this in mind Headfirst is careful to include as much local talent as possible in it’s gig guide.

In addition to attending gigs you can also support Bristol’s musicians by buying their records from independent stores like Idle Hands Records, Shall Not Fade and Christmas Steps Records.