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Bristol Gigs
Bristol Gigs
— All Bristol's Live MusicBuy tickets for Bristol's best gigs and live music.
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.
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.
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 Colston Hall or Marble Factory.
Upcoming gigs in Bristol
Breakfast Records presents: Frank & Beans in Bristol Tickets
Phenomenal thunder-punk
Curtis Eller's American Circus in Bristol Tickets
Curtis Eller and his band The American Circus return with their dynamic & highly physical stage performance.
Naomi Bedford and Paul Simmonds in Bristol Tickets
Naomi Bedford and Paul Simmonds Singing It All Back Home: Appalachian Songs of English and Scottish Origin
IN HAZE: DON JUAN + PUNCH ON + BEHEADING & RATBAGS in Bristol Tickets
In Haze 1 @ Cafe Kino
My Octopus Mind – Video Release Party in Bristol Tickets
Experimental rock mongers bring their newly-extended 6-piece band to the Cube to celebrate their 2nd video release
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 The Old England and The Surrey Vaults provide a testbed for the screaming synthesisers and and 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.
Schwet returns again to the stately upstairs room of The Stag And Hounds Public House to host Barcelona’s post-industrial dance duo Dame Area. Their live set features ethnic percussion, 80s synths, crashing sheet metal and striking vocals, crucial for fans of Toresch, Suicide and atminimal wave records.
They’re joined by HARRGA, a local duo set to release their debut LP via the shadowy Avon Terror Corps. Resident DJs playing the usual unusual until late...
🎫 Tickets: hdfst.uk/E51032
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Bristolian bass lynchpin Ossia serves up a righteous bill at The Brunswick Club on March 8th, as part of the Submerge festival.
Fresh from dropping his debut LP on Blackest Ever Black, he’ll play live alongside a heavyweight all-star cast with mutant dub-tek hybrids from John T. Gast, scuzzy improv punk via EP/64, distorto beatnik beatz from ASDA and eyes-down melancholia courtesy of local Young Echo auxiliary unit Jabu.
🎫 Tickets: hdfst.uk/E51282
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Few can list a t.A.t.u remix as one of their finest achievements and retain their musical credibility. Yet, like much of techno’s new wave of pioneering producers, no cultural stones lay unturned for Air Max '97 Music. In keeping with Bristol’s own experimental sound, the Melbourne producer spills a diverse pool of influences across his oblique DJ sets, reworking the likes of Bjork, Rihanna, Kelela and even Gangsta Boo into unrecognisable, frenzied mayhem, packed with rhythmic complexity and a floor-heavy focus. Joining the dots between broken beat, bassline, grime and garage, his own productions are dark and twisted amalgams, warping vocal samples into nightmarish yet melancholy textures that call to mind IDM greats such as Burial, Aphex & Autechre.
Don’t miss him alongside Hi5ghost, Zoee, Saaaz and NES$ b2b MUN SING for Illegal Data’s first show of 2019 at The Old England.
🎫 Tickets: hdfst.uk/E50870
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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/
We Never Learned To Live // Plus Support in Bristol Tickets
Post-Hardcore atmospheric metallers return!
Eamon O'Leary and Jefferson Hamer (The Murphy Beds in Bristol Tickets
Eamon O’Leary and Jefferson Hamer (aka The Murphy Beds) present traditional and original folk songs with close harmonies and deft instrument
Don Kipper in Bristol Tickets
Don Kipper are a multi-award winning sextet led by the formidable Greek-Serbian singer Dunja Botic. Propelled by a rhythm section featuring
Don Kipper at Crofters Rights in Bristol
Don Kipper are a multi-award winning sextet led by the formidable Greek-Serbian singer Dunja Botic. Propelled by a rhythm section featuring
Weedruid & Cegvera at The Cube in Bristol
An evening of stoner, doom and sludge
BIKE (Brazil) at The Lanes in Bristol
Gravy Train presents... BIKE, plus guests
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.
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:
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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Rioghnach Connolly's commanding vocals return to Trinity Centre after gracing the stage with her Shambala headling group, Honeyfeet. Rioghnach's woozy voice is matched by jazz-leaning structures and an attention to sonic design that's unsurprising given the rest of The Breath's affiliaition with The Cinematic Orchestra. Their new album for Real World Records is a modern alt-folk milestone from the Manchester band - a total trip through delicate hushed Hardanger fiddles, torch-bearing choruses and heartfelt moments of introspection.
Backed by SOME THING GOOD's DJ Dad and the haunting soundscapes of rising Bristol act The Desert - this is a big recommendation for fans of Mazzy Star, Fleet Foxes or Afro Celt Soundsystem.
🎫 Tickets hdfst.uk/E46727
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Illegal Data has come out of nowhere to become the most consistently surprising post-whatever 'club night' - with it's fingers so deep on the pulse that they're practically inside the vein. Four nights in and they've already hosted PC Music's SPINEE, a crushing nu-metal sets from SLACK ALICE's Kelan, sino-grime from L U C Y, and washes of modular noise from Silver Waves.
This instalment welcomes Central Processing Unit nu-electro king DADDY LONG LEGS, industrial trap from Kinlaw and Italian MC Franco Franco (from new Bristol firestarting collective Avon Terror Corps), vapor-dancehall from Mixpak's Don Sinini.
Part of some really eye-watering promoters flocking to make The Stag And Hounds Public House Bristol finest music pub of late (RIP Surrey Vaults).
🎫 Tickets hdfst.uk/E48378
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TRENDING GIGS
Crofters Rights
Samana
Nomadic duo Samana will be back to the material world with a Bristol debut.
Crofters Rights
The Monochrome Set & The Total Rejection
Legendary and highly influential indie band, The Monochrome Set return to Bristol supported by local favourites, The Total Rejection
St Thomas the Martyr Church
Dark Alchemy IV
A one-day Dark Noise & Ritual Ambient festival
Bristol Folk House
Rory McLeod
Rhythmic storyteller, multi-instrumentalist,…telling unpalatable truths about broken hearts…social injustice
Thekla
Breakfast Records presents: BREAKFEST
The biggest All-Day Breakfast yet.
The Louisiana
Ruzz Guitar's Blues Revue
Blues & Rock'n'Roll Extravaganza
Crofters Rights
Acid Dad
NYC's sewer spirits Acid Dad will be finally coming to Bristol for their first time at the Old England.
The Louisiana
Gia Margaret
Chicago singer/songwriter/producer makes her Bristol debut
Bristol Folk House
Old Man Luedecke
Old Man Luedecke is the recording and performing name of multiple award-winning, Canadian roots singer-songwriter Christopher Luedecke.
Exchange
The Obsessed - All-Day Extravaganza
The Obsessed return with a heavy supporting line-up!
The Lanes
Boogarins
After their sold out debut shows, brasilian psych-pop enthusiasts are coming back at The Lanes with a new record!
St. Paul's Crypt, Southville
Daniel Higgs & The Funnel
Mysterious and mystical experimental folk in a crypt.
Crofters Rights
The Stroppies
Melbourne-based DIY titans head to the south for their debut Bristol show
The Stag And Hounds
Dark Alchemy Presents...Dark Ambient in the Stag
A night of Dark Ambient / Drone / Noise
The Old England Pub
Bad Luck Presents: Astral Festival Opening Night
The opening night of the Astral Festival 2019, hosted by Bad Luck Magazine.
Rough Trade Bristol
ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE
Gravy Train present Acid Mothers Temple, plus guests
The Lanes
Marbled Eye
West-coast post-punk corsairs Marbled Eye Bristol debut!
Exchange
Punka: Dream Nails, Menstrual Cramps & Baby Seals
3 BADASS PUNK BANDS & A DRAG KING HOST
The Lanes
Elf Power // Lawrence Arabia
Another international co-headline show with Lysergic Limes and BLG at The Lanes!
The Forge
Pocket presents : Chaz Thorogood
Pocket presents : Chaz Thorogood
Fiddlers
Black Midi
The mysterious math jazz Rough Trade signees return to Bristol
Crofters Rights
MADONNATRON
Gravy Train presents... Madonnatron, plus guests.
The Cube
Abattoir/Satori With Knifedoutofexistance and Orga
An evening of industrial noise and soundscapes from Italy, London, Brighton and Bristol.
Crofters Rights
Zanias // Buzz Kull
Aussie darkwave Zanias and Buzz Kull are teaming up for their Bristol debut this summer at The Crofters Rights!
The Old England Pub
DF: DUEL (US) // Cybernetic Witch Cult + More TBA
Heavy Psychedelic Stoner Metal
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 Rise Records and Christmas Steps Records.
In addition to attending gigs you can also support Bristol’s musicians by buying their records from independent stores like Rise Records and Christmas Steps Records.
