Bristol’s best live music venues

Bristol’s vibrant music venues and subterranean nightclubs have fostered pioneering scenes that go against the grain. Here's the best of them.

Bristol has long been a fertile breeding ground for ambitious and adventurous musicians that go against the grain. The maritime city’s homegrown music communities and scenes are frequently born on the fringes, yet share common ground with a firm focus on greater horizons.

Confirming its status a countercultural hub throughout the 60s with the rise of sound system culture – where reggae, ska and dub reverberated through neighbourhoods like Easton and St Pauls – it wasn’t until the 90s with the advent of the ‘Bristol Sound’ that the city’s scene burst from the underground into the mainstream when groundbreaking artists like Massive Attack, Tricky and Portishead took trip-hop to global stages. Naturally, this breakthrough influenced fellow Bristolians like Roni Size’s drum and bass collective Reprazent – who won the Mercury Prize for album New Forms in 1997 – to local folk, jazz, punk and techno scenes, and much later dubstep.

But it’s Bristol’s vibrant music venues and subterranean nightclubs that have fostered these pioneering scenes.

There’s beloved music venues of all shapes and sizes that sprawl around the harbourside, amid the graffitied streets, up to The Downs and beyond, producing modern transgressors as varied as IDLES, Squid, Turbowolf, Eats Everything, Getdown Services, Cousin Kula, Grandmas House and Katy J Pearson. According to a 2023 study using PIRATE.COM booking data, Bristol has the highest concentration of artists across the UK and Ireland. Thankfully then, there’s plenty of venues – and city-wide festivals like Dot To Dot – for local talent to cut their teeth as well as welcoming more established and international artists to strut their proverbial stuff, all of which you see hometown hero ‘Big Jeff’ in the front row, no doubt.

In order of capacity, we’ve listed Bristol’s very best live music venues below. To find out what’s on, definitely check out our handy Local Guide.

O2 Academy Bristol

Where is it? Frogmore St, Bristol, BS1 5NA

Capacity: 1,600

What can I expect to see there? Nowadays the O2 Academy Bristol might fall in line with the series of O2 venues across the country, but don’t believe it’s been stripped of personality in favour of corporate sponsorship. Starting life in 1966, the venue was originally a cinema among a greater entertainment complex before shapeshifting into a nightclub, then eventually a live music venue in 2001 when it opened with a set from Ocean Colour Scene. The odd layout – wide and shallow – means you’ll get unusually up-close-and-personal to some impressive bands you might otherwise but lodged right at the back for in other venues, namely Kendrick Lamar, Arcade Fire, Gorillaz and even Radiohead’s Thom Yorke.

Find out more about O2 Academy Bristol and its listings here

Electric Bristol

Where is it? 15 Nelson St, Bristol, BS1 2JY

Capacity: 1,100

What can I expect to see there? Up until very recently, Electric Bristol was known as SWX, though this is merely the latest in a number of guises that has seen the venue go by Syndicate, Papillons, The Works, Top Rank, Baileys, Romeo and Juliets, Odyssey… the list goes on. Irrespective of its moniker, one thing you can guarantee there is a ripsnorting party. Sharing responsibilities as a gig venue and nightclub, Electric Bristol is equipped with oodles of character across its three floors, no to mention its hi-spec sound system, capability for pyrotechnics and lasers, and a CO2 cannon to boot. After their latest rebrand, the venue is really ramping up its curation in the live music space however, with gigs from Magdalena Bay, Waxahatchee, Scissor Sisters, KOKOROKO, Obongjayar, Atreyu, and Nova Twins set to kick off its new era in style.

Find out more about Electric Bristol and its listings here

The Fleece

Where is it? 12 St Thomas St, Redcliffe, Bristol, BS1 6JJ

Capacity: 450

What can I expect to see there? One of Bristol’s longest standing venues – and proudly independent still to this day – The Fleece opened in 1982 and has been hosting trailblazing talent like Jeff Buckley, Self Esteem, Queens of the Stone Age, Oasis, Ed Sheeran and Amy Winehouse ever since. The grade II listed building was a former sheep trading market during the 19th century, hence the name, situated slapbang in the middle between Bristol’s town centre and Temple Meads station. Surviving numerous threats of closure, The Fleece has relied on its adoring gig-goers to get it out of trouble, but after refurbishment in 2021, the venue is thankfully going nowhere.

Find out more about The Fleece and its listings here

Thekla

Where is it? The Grove, East Mud Dock, Bristol, BS1 4RB

Capacity: 400

What can I expect to see there? Quite uniquely, Thekla is a live music venue on a boat. Yes, a boat. Although that’s certainly some of the appeal, it’s not merely the novelty of seeing live bands on a moored vessel in Bristol’s harbourside that’ll lure you into the boat’s bilges. Undergoing refurbishment at the hands of new owners DHP in 2006 after its initial existence as a German cargo ship converted into a nightclub, Thekla’s reputation as a bastion of South West’s indie rock truly flourished. Icons and upstarts alike have gone on to win their sea legs such as Pulp, Stormzy, Calvin Harris, Phoebe Bridgers, Ellie Goulding, The Pretenders and Squarepusher.

Find out more about Thekla and its listings here

Exchange

Where is it? 72, 73 Old Market St, Bristol, BS2 0EJ

Capacity: 250

What can I expect to see there? A community-owned, non-for-profit independent venue which opened in 2012, Bristol’s Exchange has become an integral cog in cultivating the city’s music talent. Operated by its loyal members, the venue remains a hub for various creative enterprises like pop-up kitchens and breweries, flea markets, workshops and exhibitions, alongside its seven-day-a-week roster of Bristol’s newest talent making the jump from rehearsal spaces to the stage. Not that the venue is reserved solely for budding talent, however. The likes of HAIM, Melvins, Four Tet, Sleaford Mods, The 1975 and IDLES have all played since its inception – the latter of which whose bass player, Adam Devonshire, even used to manage the bar.

Find out more about the Exchange and its listings here

The Louisiana

Where is it? Wapping Rd, Bathurst Terrace, Bristol BS1 6UA

Capacity: 140

What can I expect to see there? This former seafarers’ hotel turned into an impromptu gig venue after there was a fire at neighbours The Fleece in the 90s, which urged two plucky promoters to plea to the owner Mig Schillace to host their show in the top floor. Luckily he obliged – Placebo and Super Furry Animals played in its first week despite not actually having a stage – and The Louisiana has remained a family-run cornerstone of Bristol’s local music scene ever since. Countless up-and-comers have performed in the welcoming, wooden-floored space – as have bonafide megastars in Coldplay, Dua Lipa, The White Stripes, The Strokes, The Chemical Brothers and Muse.

Find out more about The Louisiana and its listings here