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

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! Like a delightfully broken Ben Webster, Alabaster dePlume's fragile, breathy saxophone playing is as immediately captivating as it is extraordinary. Expect delicate solo work, warm ensemble and spoken word in turmoil from the Mancunian's bitter tongue Alabaster DePlume at The Trinity Centre.

WARNING extreme trip music from the definitive freak-out group of the 21st century. Beyond-experimental psych, wildly improvised with extended atonal journeys through walls of noise. Unhinged music for unhinged fans of: Gong, Amon Düül, Stockhausen, Gnod, Bitches Brew, Comets on Fire, Frank Zappa. Acid Mothers Temple at Moor Beer Co.

Uplifting poetry melds with soul, spiritual jazz, dusty hiphop and rolling broken beat in the singular soundworld of Sons of Kemet wordsmith Joshua Idehen. Essential solo show FFO: Calabashed, Infinity Knives, Daedelus, Neue Grafik Ensemble. Joshua Idehen at The Jam Jar.

Future funk, astral jazz and bass-heavy trap combine in a swirling maelstrom of sound like BADBADNOTGOOD covering DJ Rashad’s greatest licks. Real hypnotising musicianship without a laptop in sight. ECHT + Support at The Jam Jar.

Recommended Gigs

Mon 7th April
Holly Macve at Rough Trade Bristol
— Rough Trade Bristol

Holly Macve in Bristol Tickets

Sat 8th February
Spoonie Rave at The Trinity Centre
— The Trinity Centre

Spoonie Rave in Bristol Tickets

Thu 5th June
Foxing at Thekla
Tue 27th May
Lael Neale at The Louisiana
Thu 17th April
Sea Power at The Trinity Centre
— The Trinity Centre

Sea Power in Bristol Tickets

Wed 19th February
Black Foxxes at Strange Brew
Thu 26th June
Horsegirl at Thekla
Mon 17th March
The Temperance Movement at The Trinity Centre
Sat 17th May
Inhuman Nature at Rough Trade Bristol
— Rough Trade Bristol

Inhuman Nature in Bristol Tickets

Fri 24th January
Caper Ceilidh at The Trinity Centre
— The Trinity Centre

Caper Ceilidh 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!

Monochrome made a blood oath to extreme ugliness in all forms, and the hex has not been lifted! Another weekend splatterfest of pummeling deathgrind, cybernetic queercore and….noise accordion? Gruelling highlights include Black Curse’s ludicrously blackened death-magick, Gretchen Guttersnipe in solo anarcho-gabber psychodrama, graveyard-bating OSDM from Coffin Mulch + all the bands we’ve never heard of, yet can’t unhear ….. Monochrome Festival of Ugly Music 2025 at Moor Beer Co.

Virtuosic, otherworldly alt-folk from one of the world’s only Welsh triple harpists: Cerys Hafana transmutes traditional Celtic ballads into haunting sonic tapestries, full of cinematic scope and experimental textures. Ancient roots with modern resonance FFO: Lankum, Gwenno, Lisa Knapp, This Is The Kit. Cerys Hafana at Strange Brew.

Rapper announces our new Bristol gig guide on the microphone!
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.


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.