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October is usually when I start fantasising about becoming a proper homebody. I’ve hit my thirties, I have crafts to finish, Drag Race to catch up on and an ever-growing collection of bean recipes that won’t cook themselves. The problem is, I’m also incapable of sitting still. Every time I commit to a quiet night in, a band announces a gig I’d be furious to miss.
So, instead of embracing my ‘sensible’ era, I’ll be hauling myself back out for another month of ear-ringing encores, overpriced Diet Cokes and frantic dashes for the last Overground to Camberwell. London’s October line-up is good enough to make it worthwhile. From the Strokes and Jack Harlow to Overmono, Gilla Band and some of the best new bands around, here are the gigs worth leaving your living room for.
The best London gigs and music concerts in October 2026
1. Kibo
Harrow rapper Kibo has built an entire universe around his music, complete with his own ideology: Kwengletarianism. His songs bounce between witty bars, cartoonish sound design and club-ready production, but there’s more going on than the jokes. After turning heads with his surreal take on rap, he’s bringing the whole world to Village Underground for what should be one of the month’s more unpredictable nights.
Good for: Mixmag-reading grime heads who fancy something weird
Date: October 30, 6pm
Venue: Village Underground, EC2A 3PQ
Tickets: Buy now
2. Man/Woman/Chainsaw
Man/Woman/Chainsaw have gone from Brixton Windmill oddballs to one of the most talked-about young guitar bands in the country without sanding down the bumps and lumps that made them exciting in the first place. Their debut album Cannonball takes those violin scrapes, huge guitars and unruly arrangements and shapes them into something made for the stage.
Good for: Windmill regulars who own a violin
Date: October 7, 7.30pm
Venue: Electric Ballroom, NW1 8QP
Tickets: Buy now
3. Jack Harlow
Rapper Jack Harlow has done something unexpected on MONICA, largely abandoning hip hop for jazz-tinted R&B, soft vocals and live instrumentation. Critics have been divided on whether the pivot works, but that arguably makes the KOKO show more interesting than another run through the hits. There will still be plenty of those, naturally, so prepare to scream ‘First Class’ with several thousand people who have suddenly developed opinions about neo-soul.
Good for: Longtime fans who have been waiting patiently for Jack Harlow’s jazz era
Date: October 13, 7pm
Venue: KOKO, NW1 7JE
Tickets: Buy now
4. The Strokes
If Is This It was a person, it’d be old enough to vote. Take that in for a second. The Strokes’ return to London may feel like a surreal reunion with your former self, but the new album Reality Awaits has a very modern appeal. On it, Julian Casablancas takes aim at everything from AI to music critics, as the band pushes their familiar guitar interplay into stranger territory. The hits haven't been abandoned, though, so expect plenty of ‘Last Nite’ and ‘Reptilia’ alongside the new stuff.
Good for: Retired MySpacers who now have a mortgage
Date: October 6 and 7, 6.30pm
Venue: The O2, SE10 0DX
Tickets: Buy now
5. Joyce Manor
For nearly 20 years, Joyce Manor have turned poor life choices into two-minute pop punk anthems. Their seventh album, I Used To Go To This Bar, keeps this explosive energy, with a heightened sense of reflection underpinning the lyrics. Nostalgia, getting older and the creeping realisation that your early twenties are not coming back all feel a little too real for this 30-year-old writer.
Good for: Elder emos looking to feel something post-Outbreak Fest
Date: October 8, 7pm
Venue: Electric Ballroom, NW1 8QP
Tickets: Buy now
6. Gilla Band
If you think Gilla Band sound intense on record, good luck with seeing ’em live. Their new album Pugnello pushes their noise-rock, industrial and techno instincts even further, with guitars that seem to be actively malfunctioning and drums that sound like heavy machinery having a breakdown. Yet beneath all the abrasion, there’s a surprisingly playful streak, with absurd references and genuinely funny moments. Seeing them in the round at the ICA feels like a particularly bad place to stand if you value your eardrums.
Good for: Anyone who considers ‘too loud’ a challenge
Date: October 8, 7.30pm
Venue: Institute of Contemporary Arts, SW1Y 5AH
Tickets: Buy now
7. Gurriers
Gurriers have spent the past couple of years chipping away at live audiences, from Glastonbury’s Woodsies to support slots with Turnstile and Kneecap. Their second album Nobody’s Coming To Save You doubles down on the claustrophobic tension of their debut, but gives the songs a bigger, more muscular scale (take ‘Nothing Happens Twice’ as an example). Electric Brixton is exactly the sort of room where this lot can make an unreasonable amount of noise.
Good for: Those who like their indie bands a little bit threatening
Date: October 24, 6pm
Venue: Electric Brixton, SW2 1RJ
Tickets: Buy now
8. Smerz
Smerz make the kind of electronic pop that feels like overhearing someone's thoughts on the Overground. Norwegian duo Henriette Motzfeldt and Catharina Stoltenberg turn tiny observations, loneliness and awkward everyday moments into fashionable sleek classical-composition-meets-computer-pop. Their Big City Life material is perfectly suited to the Barbican thanks to its intrinsically cerebral feeling.
Good for: Girls who’ll turn a minor inconvenience into an existential crisis
Date: October 15, 7.30pm
Venue: Barbican Hall, EC2Y 8DS
Tickets: Buy now
9. Masego
Jamaican-American singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Masego is back on the road with Fix Your Face, a 16-track record about resilience and growth in spite of life’s curveballs. Expect the new songs alongside staples, including ‘Tadow’ and ‘Mystery Lady’, with plenty of room for the live impromptu flourishes that make his shows so distinctive.
Good for: Millennials who think a sax solo can solve most problems
Date: October 18, 6pm
Venue: The O2, SE10 0DX
Tickets: Buy now
10. Overmono
Tom and Ed Russell’s second album Pure Devotion is full of the sort of details you wouldn't necessarily expect from a dance record. The duo recorded through a 1930s train-station announcement system and deliberately abused their synths and effects gear, then turned it all into euphoric club music that will sound right at home in Ally Pally’s bellowing main hall.
Good for: Owners of the limited-edition XL Banger bomber jacket
Date: October 28, 6.30pm
Venue: Alexandra Palace, N22 7AY
Tickets: Buy now
11. Lip Critic
Lip Critic’s live setup is excessive. You’ve got two drummers, two samplers and frontman Bret Kaser barking over the top of it all. Their second album, Theft World, is just as unhinged as the arrangement suggests. Built around paranoia, obsession and the story of a fan who steals Kaser’s identity and goes on a shopping spree in his name, it’s a recipe for chaos when performed live.
Good for: Blokes who use Pitchfork ratings as a method of virtue signalling
Date: October 22, 7pm
Venue: The Underworld, NW1 0NE
Tickets: Buy now
12. Swim Deep
Remember ‘King City’? Swim Deep certainly do, given their recent batch of live throwback shows. But their fifth album Hum isn't interested in regurgitating that early-2010s indie haze. The band has pushed into louder and more distorted territory, while keeping the chiming melodies that made them such a fixture of that era. There’s bound to be some nostalgia at the Moth Club, but the band should have enough new material to keep things from getting too backwards-looking.
Good for: Indie kids who yearn for the days of brogues and floral dresses
Date: October 2, 6pm
Venue: Moth Club, E9 6NU
Tickets: Buy now
13. Fat Dog
South London five-piece Fat Dog have built their reputation for pelting saxophones, drums, warped synths and shrieking vocals at their audience like you’re all trapped in a batting cage. Now the band gets their biggest hometown headline yet at Brixton Academy, where WOOF. standouts such as ‘King of the Slugs’ and ‘Running’ will have considerably more room to cause trouble.
Good for: Men in their thirties who have something to get out of their system
Date: October 24, 7pm
Venue: O2 Academy Brixton, SW9 9SL
Tickets: Buy now
14. Static Dress
Static Dress have spent years augmenting their music with dense, deep lore. For their sophomore album, Injury Episode, the Leeds four-piece staged a secret, phone-free cinema event featuring their own video game, a film and a surprise set, then released a psychological-horror game built around the album. The record itself is equally ambitious, toying with post-hardcore, rock melodies and surprisingly tender moments. Their Electric Ballroom date is part of their biggest UK headline run yet.
Good for: Gaming nerds with bleached red hair and a wardrobe of self-made crop tops
Date: October 30, 6pm
Venue: Electric Ballroom, NW1 8QP
Tickets: Buy now
15. Tooth
Tooth are one of indie’s most talked-about new acts. The four-piece, fronted by Tom Pollock, pulls from second-wave emo and the noisier end of '90s guitar music, with ‘The Age of Innocence’ and ‘Medicine’ already showing how well they can balance melody with a bit of abrasion. Given the hype they’ve received post-Reading, this show at The Garage could be one of the last places you see them before their shows get swarmed with Fontaines DC-looking teenagers.
Good for: Cool teenagers and music critics desperate to impress them
Date: October 27, 7pm
Venue: The Garage, N5 1RD
Tickets: Buy now
16. TOMORA
This is what happens when one half of The Chemical Brothers teams up with one of Norway’s most distinctive pop voices. Tom Rowlands and Aurora’s passion project, TOMORA, is a maximalist meeting of rave beats and icy, otherworldly singing. Catch the live show at Roundhouse for an impressive visual experience from longtime Chemical Brothers collaborator Adam Smith and a spectrum of weirdo live sounds.
Good for: Old ravers with a penchant for the supernatural
Date: October 28, 7pm
Venue: Roundhouse, NW1 8EH
Tickets: Buy now
17. Madra Salach
Madra Salach built their reputation the old-fashioned way – playing shows people wouldn't stop talking about before releasing a record. Who’d have thought that still works in the digital age? The Dublin six-piece's traditional Irish instruments poke through noisy experimental arrangements, giving songs rooted in folk music a distinctly modern menace. Their It's a Hell of an Age EP finally put that live reputation on record and revealed them to a swell of new fans, so get in there quick.
Good for: Balding 30-somethings with a Quietus subscription and pending Irish passport application
Date: October 13, 7pm
Venue: Electric Ballroom, NW1 8QP
Tickets: Buy now
18. Villagerrr
Villagerrr began with songwriter Mark Allen Scott recording songs at home in Columbus, Ohio, before hitting the road with a full band. On their debut album, Carousel, his miles from home seep into slowcore, country-twanged pedal steel and hazy guitars, giving the record the feeling of watching a changing landscape through a van window. The tiny gig room of Paper Dress Vintage, with its rails of faded vintage garb downstairs, should suit the vibe nicely.
Good for: Anyone who owns a cowboy hat but lives in Hackney
Date: October 29, 7.30pm
Venue: Paper Dress Vintage, E8 1HR
Tickets: Buy now
Other big London music shows this month
- Macklemore is hosting a Free Palestine show for humanitarian aid
- PC Music's Pop Cube is back with a spooky spin
- You can howl along to 'Hungry Like The Wolf' with Duran Duran this Halloween
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