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 6th March
Real Lies + Support at Lost Horizon
Wed 26th March
Pure Adult at Rough Trade Bristol
— Rough Trade Bristol

Pure Adult in Bristol Tickets

Thu 20th November
Nouvelle Vague at The Trinity Centre
Thu 22nd May
Panic Shack at Thekla

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

Sell out warning! Real deal Irish folk exactly as you’d want it - full of charm, honesty, intricate trad. musicianship and tales of the Emerald Isles. Daoirí Farrell at Bristol Folk House.

The most vital act to survive the 90s acid-jazz / trip-hop boom - Red Snapper’s electronic playfulness, instrumental virtuosity and disregard for genre boundaries blazed a path for the current Bristol jazz crossover scene (Snazzback, Waldo’s Gift etc.) Red Snapper + Support at The Jam Jar.

Sell out warning! A blessing from the Bronx, Mike’s dream-infested rap collages haunt the world - beaming chopped ambiance, broken-jazz memories and introspective baritone flow to lost phones, sleepless nights and aching souls. Sentimental and otherworldly, Mike’s seat in the future towers of hip-hop is secure. Unswervable FFO: Quelle Chris, Earl Sweatshirt, billy woods, Madvillain, Navy Blue, Knxwledge. MIKE at The Trinity Centre.

Following on from their mirthful sold-out Bristol show last year, everyone’s favourite virtuosic radical folk collective return with their drone, improv and avant-garde explorations of folk by-and-for-the-people. Schwet with Shovel Dance Collective at Strange Brew.

Recommended Gigs

Sat 23rd November
Daz's rock 4 charity at The Trinity Centre
Thu 1st May
Skegss at The Trinity Centre
— The Trinity Centre

Skegss in Bristol Tickets

Fri 7th March
Joshua Burnside at The Trinity Centre
Wed 12th February
Anna B Savage at The Lantern
Fri 28th February
Fionn Regan at Strange Brew
Fri 21st February
C Duncan at Bristol Folk House
— Bristol Folk House

C Duncan in Bristol Tickets

Tue 4th March
Machine Girl at The Trinity Centre
— The Trinity Centre

Machine Girl in Bristol Tickets

Sun 16th March
White Denim at SWX
Tue 6th May
Alabaster DePlume at The Trinity Centre

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! Unsettling, experimental rap for fans of Danny Brown, Ghostmane and Odd Future. Gasmask donning Gao is setting fire to small minded hiphop circles with lyrical murder, melancholy and half-imagined extraterrestrial police-states Gao the Arsonist at Exchange.

Freewheeling cultureclash orchestra traversing free jazz, post-punk highlife and minimalist classical with transcendental results. Think Sonic Youth + Glen Branca’s downtown NY guitar ensemble covering Fela Kuti and you’re not even close (maybe Sons of Kemet raiding the Philip Glass’ songbook is closer…but you’ll have to see for yourself). Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp at The Jam Jar.

Rapper announces our new Bristol gig guide on the microphone!
Sell out warning! Lush legend and anti-pop heroine Miki Berenyi returns revitalised after her much-acclaimed confessional memoirs with a new trio playing classic Lush tracks and new material. Essential for all dreampoppers, shoegazers and 90s kids. Miki Berenyi Trio + Keeley + Shoun Shoun at The Golden Lion.

Sell out warning! Join the upful 30 year revelries for the OG squat ska punks that refuse to lie down. Must-attend if you like your punk with lashings of upbeat dub guitars, folk singalongs and flag-burning lyricism. Huge FFO: The Slits, Citizen Fish, pre-footie anthem Chumbawumba, The Clash in dub, Capdown, Operation Ivy. 30 Years of Inner Terrestrials - New Date Added 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.