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Post-Rock Gigs in Bristol

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Bristol's Post-rock Scene

What ever happened to post-rock?

Britannica defines post rock as a form of experimental rock that incorporates aspects of jazz and electronica, so what happened to the genre that was so popular in the 90s and 00s. Bands like Mogwai and Tortoise have gone quiet and local Bristol post-rock acts too. The problem with post-rock is that it’s so loosely defined, that it hasn’t really gone away or at all. Rather than decline, the term has just gone out of fashion. Post-rock lives on in the fusion-ready music of local Bristol acts like Ishmael ensemble. With many kids that would’ve been rockstars in the 90s, now making electronica - maybe we should call this post-post-rock now?

What we said in 2015
Right now Bristol’s post-rock and alternative rock scene is at it’s healthiest for years. In addition to some excellent local venues and consistently strong live bookings, we also have promoters like Simple Things purveying some of the boldest festival programming in the UK. Recent Simple Things events have paired post-rock headliners like Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor with cutting edge electronic music and innovative techno producers. In terms of consistent Bristol venues for alternative rock - The Exchange, The Stag And Hounds and The Fleece (who’s past bookings include Thee Silver Mt Zion and Deerhoof) lead the way. The Thekla also makes solid bookings (past guests include 65daysofstatic, And So I Watch You From Afar) and annual ArcTanGent Festival is not to be missed.

Buy tickets for post-rock events in Bristol

Our recent post-rock recommendations

Instrumental post-rock splendour veering expertly between glacial serenity and mathy, chugging, euphoric intensity. Staggering dynamism with a metallic shoegaze sheen FFO: Alcest, Mono, GY!BE, And So I Watch You From Afar. A Burial at Sea at The Louisiana.

Instrumental prog rock/jazz runaway-train act Z Machine bring their chunky jams to the Old E with loose, snakish saxophone coiling round acrobatic guitar scrawl; Inscape offer a grand tour through a disparate forest of modern rock styles and Cities conjure tranquil ambient post-rock vistas. Big FFO: Mahavishnu Orchestra, the midpoint between Of Montreal and Tool, Ex-Easter Island Head. Alternative and out there progressive rock and electronic music

Sell out warning! Harsh joy, opulent noise, beloved punk-spirited pop. Are Deerhoof the most utterly distinctive yet impossible-to-pin-down band of the 21st century? WELL DUH. Venerable US underground indie-noise-pop group whose ever-changing music is united by their experimental spirit and heartfelt point of view

Art punk? Post-folk? Baroque prog? What ARE Foot Foot? And what wizard conjured them from the cosmic realms? Mull on these questions and more as they enchant the Kino basement alongside Celtic balladry and velvety Americana from Eve Appleton Band + Enabling Behaviour’s haunted primordial post-punk. KINO LIVES (Night 3) - Week-long Celebration of Community, Radical Spaces & Queer Joy

What our editors say

“KATATONIA released their triumphant Napalm Records debut, Sky Void of Stars, in 2023 to the enthrallment of critics and fans alike. The album showcases their brilliant, genre-defying fusion of melodic death metal and atmospheric post rock. Following its release, the band jumped on a massive headline tour across Europe and the UK alongside Sólstafir and SOM.”
From: Katatonia

“Self-taught pianist and composer Daniel Inzani has been a pivotal figure on the Bristol alternative music scene for more than a decade. He leads a neoclassical chamber quartet Spindle Ensemble, co-curates Hidden Notes Festival in Stroud, and he’s worked with a baffling array of outfits, playing Ethiopian funk, Indonesian gamelan, rocksteady, 1950s-style exotica and post rock, as well as working closely with fellow maverick musicians Alabaster dePlume and Cosmo Sheldrake.”
From: PLAY

“In just a thunderous 16 minutes, it fashions blistered no wave collages out of skronking guitars, noirish jazz piano, and fragile, spidery sprechstimme monologues – genuinely volatile, uncomfortable music that combines the cinematic high drama of post rock with jazz detritus and the gristly, sinewy guitar noise of Albini, Ranaldo or Branca at their butchering best.”
From: Ex Agent EP Release Party + BIPED + D/rk Humr x TLK

““The fifth album - created entirely in his native Sardinia - Pathei Mathos confirms the post rock project S A R R A M as a rich and highly emotional masterpiece. There is a lot to discover and experience here."”
From: SARRAM / SHE THE THRONE / MONIKA BADLY / KIM ORGANCHRIST

“One of the South West's freshest post rock / math rock outfits, Essential Formulas have been picking up momentum in their respective scene since their formation 2 years ago, garnering support slots with the likes of Bicurious, Parachute for Gordo and local friends in Bristol's Hexcut, picking up a loyal following along the way.”
From: Essential Formulas