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London has a full vibe shift once April rolls around. One minute, Mile End is cold, grey and drizzly, the next I’m in a rom-com montage: girlies are carrying tulips everywhere I look, my local is heaving with punters gripping pints of Guinness in one hand and ciggies in the other, and the clattering crescendo of Lime bikes soundtracks my outings as heavily as the new Robyn album.
And April’s gigs match that energy. Olivia Dean’s O2 takeover is pure main-character material with sing-every-word moments, while Big Thief is on hand if you fancy an emotional spiral in a dimly lit room. Elsewhere, Amaarae is throwing a full-blown, genre-hopping party, and Sammy Virji is basically turning Ally Pally into a UKG pressure cooker.
The best London gigs and music concerts in April 2026
1. Olivia Dean
She swept the Brits and the MOBOs earlier this year, so Olivia Dean is essential to see live right now. The singer’s six-night residency at the O2 is kicking off this April, giving you the chance to dance the night away to a plethora of love songs that are built for big rooms, but still land with a genuine warmth. Not many people could make that work. Expect a crowd that both knows every word and actually sings them back.
Good for: Real-life rom-com seekers
Date: Wed Apr 29, Thu Apr 30, plus additional dates in May and June
Venue: O2 Arena, SE10 0DX
Tickets: Buy now
2. Big Thief
Big Thief lets the emotional moments creep up on you. The songwriting of Adrianne Lenker leans less on structure and more on genuine feeling, as 2025 album Double Infinity proves. It shifts shape constantly in its approach to telling emotional truths. Songs feel stretched out, dissolved, and then all of a sudden, the feelings hit you all at once. Give ‘Grandmother’ a whirl, and you’ll see exactly what I mean.
Good for: Cosmic indie kids
Date: Thu Apr 23-Sun Apr 26, 7pm
Venue: O2 Academy Brixton, SW9 9SL
Tickets: Buy now
3. Amaarae
Amaarae’s shows pull the crowd into it. The music slides between genres without warning, and the audience keeps up. Her 2025 album Black Star leans fully into the club – drawing on the Black diaspora and turning it into something slick, hedonistic and deliberately excessive.
Good for: Fashionable clubbers
Date: Thu Apr 23, 7pm
Venue: Roundhouse, NW1 8EH
Tickets: Buy now
4. Sammy Virji
Some shows are about sitting back, watching and taking in the ‘vibes’, this one is not. Sammy Virji’s meteoric rise means you’re getting peak UKG energy in a grand venue that can actually handle the intensity of eardrum-whacking bangers like ‘If U Need It’ and ‘Cops & Robbers’. Expect reloads, chaos and a crowd that didn’t come to stand still. Gun fingers at the ready. Hydrate accordingly.
Good for: Men with extensive football shirt collections
Date: Fri Apr 17 and Sat Apr 18, 6.30pm
Venue: Alexandra Palace, N22 7AY
Tickets: Buy now
5. Arca
I’m not going to lie, it’s bloody hard to try and sum up an Arca show. It’s intense, theatrical and occasionally disorienting, but never boring. Their non-binary identity informs their musical output, while their live shows closely resemble performance art. Expect pole dancing, interactive art installations and traditional Venezuelan instruments as they bring the new concept Airdoll to HERE at Outernet this April.
Good for: Vogue-smoking clubrats
Date: Fri Apr 17, 9pm
Venue: HERE at Outernet, WC2H 8LH
Tickets: Buy now
6. Holly Humberstone
Holly Humberstone’s 2023 album Paint My Bedroom Black proved she can do more than just sad-pop confessionals. Songs take unexpected turns with a mix of big, synth-driven choruses and a handful of quieter, almost folk-leaning moments that bring everything back down to earth. Live, that balance works in her favour, one minute it’s a full-room singalong, the next it’s just her voice cutting through. No boring moments here.
Good for: Heartbroken teenagers
Date: Thu Apr 2, 7pm
Venue: O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, W12 8TT
Tickets: Buy now
7. Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys in a venue this size feels like a scheduling glitch. The catalogue alone justifies the ticket. But trust me, once you see the live show, you won’t mind whatever dent it's made in the wallet (oh, and it’s all for War Child). You’ll get hit after hit, acting as a constant reminder of how sharp they’ve actually always been. One of the easiest yeses on this list.
Good for: Old school pop purists
Date: Mon Apr 6-Fri Apr 10, 7pm
Venue: Electric Ballroom, NW1 8QP
Tickets: Buy now
8. Belle and Sebastian
Belle and Sebastian are marking 30 years of their landmark albums Tigermilk and If You’re Feeling Sinister with a run of full-album shows, including a two-night stop at the Royal Albert Hall. The setting works perfectly, it’s ornate, seated, and there are virtually no distractions, apart from maybe the occasional phone filming on a horizontal. Expect a carefully paced, quietly euphoric evening filled with ’90s nostalgia.
Good for: Cool indie blokes
Date: Wed Apr 8-Thu Apr 9, 6.45pm
Venue: Royal Albert Hall, SW7 2AP
Tickets: Buy now
9. 2manydjs
2manydjs don’t miss often, and right now they’re on a particularly strong run – they even turned Abbey Road into a rave space back in Feb. Sets move fast, jumping from Marie Davidson to Blur, and somehow the room stays completely locked in. Their ‘DSCO’ night at KOKO leans fully into that energy, so be ready for anything.
Good for: Shameless dad dancers
Date: Sat Apr 4, 10pm
Venue: KOKO, NW1 7RE
Tickets: Buy now
10. HAAi
HAAi is everywhere. She did over 100 shows last year, from Glastonbury to a Paris residency and back-to-backs with basically everyone who matters. Her sets are famously tempo-shifting and unpredictable, which keeps even the most seasoned crowds locked in. The HUMANiSE live show leans into that with its fluid and collaborative feel that eschews big drop moments.
Good for: Arty techno types
Date: Wed Apr 1 and Thu Apr 2, 7.30pm
Venue: The Courtyard Theatre, N1 6EU
Tickets: Buy now
11. Smerz
This isn’t going to be a big, immediate set. Smerz take their time, and it works better if you meet them halfway. Their 2025 album Big City Life is characterised by its blissfully subtle shifts in sonic textures, though ‘A Thousand Lies’ and ‘You Got Time and I Got Money’ give you plenty of emotion to hold onto. Heaven’s main room will be unusually still, with people watching rather than reacting. But that’s quite nice, isn’t it?
Good for: East Londoners dressed like JFK Jr and Caroline Bassett Kennedy
Date: Fri Apr 24, 6pm
Venue: Heaven, WC2N 6NG
Tickets: Buy now
12. james K
There’s a reason james K tends to play spaces like the Barbican. Her work sits somewhere between ambient, spoken word and deconstructed club music, rarely landing in one place for long. Tracks like ‘Hypersoft Lovejinx Junkdream’ drift in and out without a clear structure, touching on everything from breakbeat to shoegaze within just a few minutes. Worth seeing just to figure out what she’s doing.
Good for: NTS subscribers
Date: Fri Apr 3, 7pm
Venue: Barbican Centre, EC2Y 8DS
Tickets: Buy now
13. INJI
Turkish-born, NYC-based artist INJI deals in quick payoffs. Her sound is made up of tight hooks, club-ready beats and songs that don’t hang around longer than they need to. Standouts like ‘GASLIGHT’ and ‘MADELINE’ are perfect examples of her immediate, slightly chaotic pop sound. It’s the kind of stuff that’s built for a loud room.
Good for: Carefree pop girls
Date: Fri Apr 23, 6pm
Venue: KOKO, NW1 7RE
Tickets: Buy now
14. Dry Cleaning
Masters of deadpan delivery and sharp writing, Dry Cleaning are back in their spiritual home of South London. The tour ties into the new album Secret Love, which leans more into structure and melody, without losing that detached, observational writing Florence Shaw does so well. In a venue like Brixton, that shift matters.
Good for: Men in wide-leg jeans and little crop tops
Date: Wed Apr 22, 7pm
Venue: O2 Academy Brixton, SW9 9SL
Tickets: Buy now
15. Kim Gordon
If you know Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth, the solo work feels like a continuation rather than a reset. Play Me leans into repetition, distorted textures and spoken fragments. Shows are direct and loud in places, yet deliberately stripped back and sparse in others. Perhaps this is something she’s picked up from working with Yves Tumor’s producers or she’s brought it with her from decades of experience in a legendary art rock band – either way, it’s a brilliantly jarring experience live.
Good for: No-nonsense rockers
Date: Tue Apr 14, 7pm
Venue: O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, W12 8TT
Tickets: Buy now
16. Peaches
Peaches has built a career on being deliberately provocative, but there’s more structure than you’d think. Coming out of the early 2000s electroclash scene, she carved out a lane that mixes blunt lyricism with performance art. Just look up some of the frankly insane costumes she’s worn on stage. Tracks like ‘Fuck the Pain Away’ still hit because they’re so direct and performed with gutsy energy.
Good for: Art school dropouts
Date: Mon Apr 20, 7pm
Venue: O2 Forum Kentish Town, NW5 1JY
Tickets: Buy now
17. Yungblud
Former Time Out cover star Yungblud has not only spent the last few years moving from smaller venues into full arenas, but he’s also legitimised himself in the process. Moving away from bratty teenage energy, he’s grown up into an Ozzy Osbourne protégé. His new mix of alt and classic rock feels like it’s been lifted straight from the Dazed and Confused soundtrack. Throughout it all, he’s maintained a direct connection to fans, making his smaller Outernet show a must for the die-hards.
Good for: Angsty teenagers and their mums
Date: Fri Apr 3, 6.30pm and Fri Apr 24, 6.30pm
Venue: HERE at Outernet, WC2H 8LH and The O2 Arena, SE10 0DX
Tickets: Buy now
18. Xaviersobased
Xaviersobased (real name Xavier Lopez) is one of the more unpredictable names coming out of New York’s underground right now. His recent debut album Xavier has a hazy, overstimulated quality – it never really settles in structure. His shows have a reputation for feeling half rave, half internet fever dream, so this will probably get weird.
Good for: Early discovery hip-hop heads
Date: Thu Apr 2, 7pm
Venue: EartH, N16 8BH
Tickets: Buy now
19. Speed
Coming out of Sydney’s hardcore scene, Speed has built their reputation on short, aggressive tracks and a live show that goes straight in from the first minute. The band whizzes through hits like ‘THE FIRST TEST’ and ‘Not That Nice’ at breakneck momentum, only stopping for a seconds-long flute solo. After a couple of years of heavy touring, their crowds have only gotten more intense. The pit will take over most of the floor quickly. If you’re in it, you’re committing.
Good for: Anyone craving moshpit catharsis
Date: Wed Apr 23, 7pm
Venue: Electric Ballroom, NW1 8QP
Tickets: Buy now
20. Prostitute
Prostitute built momentum the long way, through self-releasing early material, playing small shows, and slowly pulling in a wider audience off the back of it. That groundwork is starting to pay off. Their first UK dates at The Windmill sold out almost immediately, and now they’re back for a second round. Hailing from Dearborn, Michigan (an Arab-majority city you don’t often hear represented in this scene), they’ve been vocal politically, putting on benefit shows for Palestine, Lebanon and Sudan. The music is rough, loud and clear in its messaging. Don’t miss it.
Good for: Ethical punk chaos
Date: Tue Apr 28, 7.30pm
Venue: MOTH Club, E9 6NU
Tickets: Buy now
21. Ledbyher
Ledbyher feels like she’s figuring things out in real time, which is exactly the draw. The music pulls from UK underground rap but doesn’t stay put, drifting into melodic, hazy and occasionally stripped-back territory. Nothing sounds fixed yet and that carries into the live show. She’s not overly polished or predictable, but well worth catching in her early stages.
Good for: Effortlessly cool rap youngsters
Date: Wed Apr 29, 7pm
Venue: The Lower Third, WC2H 8NJ
Tickets: Buy now
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