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 join our weekly email list for ticket alerts and announcements about interesting bands coming to Bristol including our biggest venues like SWX.

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 65p 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

Thu 3rd September

— The Trinity Centre

Tyler Ballgame in Bristol Tickets

Tue 17th November

— Rough Trade Bristol

Poison Ruin in Bristol Tickets

Tue 6th October

— The Wardrobe Theatre

Tantra & Khayal in Bristol Tickets

Sun 13th September

— Bristol Beacon

Kuribo Jams in Bristol Tickets

Fri 5th February

— The Trinity Centre

Haken in Bristol Tickets

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 Lost Horizon 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

British folk iconoclast Chris Wood graces the candlelit hush of John Wesley’s New Room. His everyday epics sketch sharp-edged portraits of England’s many overlooked lives, from empty nests to minor league football teams to tragedies of industrial decay. Acute compassion ballads FFO: Martin Carthy, Karine Polwart, Billy Bragg, Richard Dawson. Chris Wood at John Wesley’s New Room.

Sell out warning! Granny’s Attic craft a mischievous folk playground, weaving original tunes into centuries-old reels and laments with effortless virtuosity. Crisp melodies, playful textures, and infectious energy celebrate the living, breathing pulse of the folk tradition. Joyous foot-stomping magic FFO: Jack Rutter, Eliza Carthy, Salt House. Granny's Attic - Greenbank Folk Club at St Anne's Church, Eastville.

Marauding Norsemen Agabas charge into town wielding their self-coined ‘deathjazz’: a pummeling uptempo rawk engine with a thrash gallop, horn blasts strafing through the noise, and shredding throat growls atop a storm of riffs and rhythms. A cataclysmic ruin ritual FFO: Kvelertak, Imperial Triumphant, Slipknot, Converge. AGABAS at Exchange.

Sell out warning! Crazed cumbia meets mutant surf, acid champeta and retro-future radiophonic SFX via Bogotá’s most notorious supergroup (ft. Meridian Brothers mastermind Eblis Alvarez). Astonishingly strange new instrumental worlds FFO: Romperayo, Dengue Dengue Dengue!, Ondatrópica, Frente Cumbiero, Fumaça Preta. Los Pirañas at The Jam Jar.

Recommended Gigs

Fri 9th October

— The Tobacco Factory

BLF PRESENTS Jazz in the Loft with MOSCOW DRUG CLUB in Bristol Tickets

Thu 10th December

— Strange Brew

Fenne Lily + Support TBC in Bristol Tickets

Sat 5th September

— Lost Horizon

Filth x Collide Yard Party with David Oblivion in Bristol Tickets

Mon 16th November

— Rough Trade Bristol

Portrayal of Guilt in Bristol Tickets

Sat 6th February

— The Trinity Centre

Tangerine Dream in Bristol Tickets

Sun 15th November

— Lost Horizon

Phil Campbell's Bastard Sons in Bristol Tickets

Thu 24th September

— The Prospect Building

SIRAT in Bristol Tickets

Thu 3rd December

— The Trinity Centre

Talisk in Bristol Tickets

Sun 15th November

— The Tobacco Factory

BLF PRESENTS Jazz in the Loft with guitar legend JIM MULLEN in Bristol Tickets

Tue 20th April

— Rough Trade Bristol

The Magpies Album Launch in Bristol Tickets

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!

Sell out warning! A Halloween oldie revamped! Two heavyweight purveyors of the midnight mood live-score Nosferatu in a creaky proto-horror symphony of shadows and smoke. Industrial folk-sludge enigma Circuit des Yeux merges with slowcore legend Alan Sparhawk (of Low fame) for a meeting of slow-burning indie grandeur and silent-era nightmare fuel. Circuit des Yeux feat. Alan Sparhawk presents Nosferatu - Score at Strange Brew.

Sell-out warning! Gorgeous, dream-soaked ghost music, refracted through hypnagogic pop lulls and a soulful jazz poise. Tara Clerkin Trio’s seductive sound is rooted in the city’s lineage of smudged trip-hop and experimental forms, with this homecoming gig at Trinity promising something quietly magical that we’ll all look back on for years to come… utterly unmissable. Tara Clerkin Trio at The Trinity Centre.

Rapper announces our new Bristol gig guide on the microphone!

This one’s a proper portal-opener! Recalibrate and dissolve with Bitchin Bajas’ slow-motion potion: analogue synth mantras swirling with wandering woodwind in blissed-out repetition. One of the 21st century’s most heady and cosmic outfits, and totally unmissable for devotees of: Cluster, Bennie Maupin, Sun Ra, Nala Sinephro, SML. Bitchin Bajas + Degurutieni at Strange Brew.

Sell out warning! A HUGE treat here! Neo-soul earworms for fans of Erika de Casier-esque daydreamer bedroom lulls or Cleo Sol’s gorgeous R&B twirls: East London’s Bel Cobain is surely one of the most exciting names bubbling up through the neo-soul / jazz continuum. You won’t catch her in this kinda intimate setting again, cos those big festival stages are calling! Bel Cobain at The Jam Jar.

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.