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! Sonic ritualism and spiritual liberation through psych funk, hip-hop and Afro-punk legends-in-the-making BCUC. The Soweto seven-piece returns triumphantly to Bristol at the feverish demands of you, the people, after many many sell-out shows at their Jam Jar home. Do not miss this! BCUC at The Jam Jar.

Sell out warning! Get yer fill of scuzzy DIY punk across three days at Red Lion, Exchange and Moor Beer… the Punx return with Crass-approved anarcho legends Zounds alongside queercore heroes The Menstrual Cramps, Welsh skate-thrashers Pizzatramp, riot grrrl ragers Pussy Liquor + looooads more TBA. Bristol Punx Picnic 2025 - Saturday at Exchange.

Sell out warning! The lineup’s pending, but if you’ve had your ears to the gutters of Bristol these last 12 years, you would’ve heard the gentle throb of Schwet aligning with your heart flutters. Self-identifying freaks, make your way to the checkout please. Schwetfest 12.0 at Strange Brew.

Sell out warning! Japanese power-poppers Shonen Knife were once Cobain-beloved cult faves bringing girl group sunshine to an era of sour-faced grunge hegemony. These days they’re a 40-year-strong bona fide institution, with a sprawling back catalogue of idiosyncratic rock covers and bubblegum punk bops. Timeless, unstoppable! FFO: The Muffs, The Ramones, Otoboke Beaver. Shonen Knife at Exchange.

Recommended Gigs

Wed 5th November
Jamie Duffy at Bristol Beacon
Mon 3rd November
Greatest Hits and more at Bristol Beacon
Wed 26th February
Harvey Causon at Rough Trade Bristol
— Rough Trade Bristol

Harvey Causon in Bristol Tickets

Tue 8th April
Lila Iké at The Trinity Centre
— The Trinity Centre

Lila Iké in Bristol Tickets

Thu 9th October
Feeder at Bristol Beacon
— Bristol Beacon

Feeder in Bristol Tickets

Tue 25th March
Hannah Raw at The Wardrobe Theatre
— The Wardrobe Theatre

Hannah Raw in Bristol Tickets

Sat 10th May
Real Ale & Sea Shanty Festival at Freemasons Hall, Park Street

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!

Basement 45 gets sucked through the hellgate of Bristol Metal Quarter, hosting a whole weekender of blister-bursting trash and death deviance + many merch stalls and 2am headbanging by the decks. Top of the bill so far: goat-worshipping blackened thrashers Devastator and Belfast’s technical ‘war-jazz’ brutalists Acid Age. Best free up some real estate on the battle jacket then ….. ThrashZone at Basement 45.

Praises to Jam Jar for hosting Ghanaian music royalty in the form of Frafra gospel superstar Florence Adooni. Fusing infectious high-life with soul-stirring gospel and the squiggly synths of psychedelic afro-funk, Florence will astound FFO: Christy Azuma, Guy One, Ebo Taylor, Marijata, Kiki Gyan, Francis Bebey. Florence Adooni at The Jam Jar.

Rapper announces our new Bristol gig guide on the microphone!
Sell out warning! Hazy country rock dreams will come true with Wooden Shjips / Moon Duo journeyman Ripley Johnson. Rose City Band’s gorgeous pedal steel, soothing harmonica and soft drumming mix the hushed, anthemic beauty of Mazzy Star or Yo La Tengo with the freewheeling cosmic pastoral of the Grateful Dead. Rose City Band at Strange Brew.

Support your local swamplords! Bristol’s premiere amphibious-sludge-doomers are back with another full length of masked metal theatrics, blazing red hot after a triumphant slice of horror cinema mythmaking and victory at Bristol M2TM 2024. Essential FFO: Electric Wizard, Devil's Witches, Acid King. FROGLORD ALBUM LAUNCH + Warpstormer, Kraken Waken at Moor Beer Co.


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.