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

Wed 3rd February
Josh Rouse at Bristol Beacon
Fri 23rd October
GET OUT OF THE WAYSIDE at Bristol Beacon
Fri 2nd October
Shadow of Intent at The Prospect Building
— The Prospect Building

Shadow of Intent in Bristol Tickets

Wed 11th November
Nokia Angel at The Full Moon & Attic Bar
— The Full Moon & Attic Bar

Nokia Angel in Bristol Tickets

Thu 25th February
Hudson Freeman + Support TBC at Strange Brew

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.

Sell out warning! Kiss Facility unites Sega Bodega’s prodigious production alchemy with Mayah Alkhateri’s gossamer Arabic vocals, all refracted through a prism of shoegaze longing and soaring avant-pop emotivity. Prepare to be utterly transfixed by the ultimate creative power couple in an absolute no-brainer FFO: Erika de Casier, Eartheater, Nadah El Shazly Kiss Facility at Strange Brew.

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.

Recommended Gigs

Wed 11th November
Suntou Susso, Natalie Holmes, + 1 TBC at Rough Trade Bristol
Sat 21st November
Panic Shack  + special guests at Strange Brew
Sat 21st November
Panic Shack + special guests at Strange Brew
Tue 9th March
Lael Neale at Rough Trade Bristol
— Rough Trade Bristol

Lael Neale in Bristol Tickets

Wed 4th November
Pearly Drops at Strange Brew
Thu 10th December
Joe Yorke Album Launch at The Trinity Centre
Wed 17th February
Greg Freeman at Thekla
Sat 17th October
Welly at Cafe Kino

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! Microtonal, instrumental, math rock meets minimalist sax-drone like La Monte Young producing Battles or Black Midi covering Beefheart. Horse Lords play with energetic algorithmic precision and daring influences - Caribbean rhythmic scales, bastardised Americana blues, blasts of bagpipes. Big WTF moment if you're new here... Horse Lords at Moor Beer Co.

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.

Rapper announces our new Bristol gig guide on the microphone!
Sell out warning! You must witness the dizzying human 909 mechanics of Goat’s rhythmical intricacies approach a kind of Reichian techno / post-post-kraut-math singularity. Thee greatest man-machines on Earth return after 3 years with imploding / exploding raw acid improv chaos from Ossia, Dan Johnson & Dali de Saint Paul (EP/70 by our count). Goat + Dali de Saint Paul, Dan Johnson & Ossia at Loco Klub.

Post-rock, screamo and antifascist crust for a world in flames. For those on the brink of collapse, only Lagrimas can touch that nerve: gut-wrenching screams, thunderous drums and tear-jerking melody all conspire to change your life in 3 minutes. This band is everything FFO: Habak, Catalyst, Fall of Efrafa, Gillian Carter. Lagrimas at The Croft.


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.