The Live Lounge

Recently starting my nights out in The Live Lounge. Great atmosphere, awesome live bands. The only downfall is that they should really get more staff behind the bar, as they are slow to serve.

Horrid on a Saturday night! Completely over-​filled so you cant move and populated by too many drunken idiots just spoiling for a fight. The reason for this is that, as a previous review mentioned, the drinks are cheap and its open till 6am (i think!), do the math, lots of drunken idiots thinking they have the right to invade personal space.
Not my idea of fun on a saturday evening, if you agree… AVOID!

Horrid on a Saturday night! Completely over-​filled so you cant move and populated by too many drunken idiots just spoiling for a fight.
Not my idea of fun on a saturday evening, if you agree… AVOID!

Yuk.
So what did you like about this place exactly? You can say whatever you want because I’m sorry, I’ve stopped listening.
If Live Lounge shut when all the other clubs shut then it wouldn’t have any customers, I swear.
I shouldn’t be so nasty about the place really, it’s not a pleasant place to visit but the real problem is the people. The main clientele are guys who have failed to pull for the rest of the night and are by this point, so desperate, that anything will do. If you’re a girl (and have any sense of decency) you’re in for a rough time here.
Live Lounge sells ‘wine’ for £1 a glass, oh yes, only the best. To be fair, people are probably so drunk that it would be a waste offering anything more refined than Lambrini.
The music is mostly the stuff you thought was ‘cool’ at school or college, which is actually quite fun, although if you were there at the start of the night you’d be hiding in embarrassment.

Live lounge will be known as the as the place that people usually go to when they’ve pretty much gone out and done what they wanted to do, gone to the places they’ve wanted to go to and decided that enough isn’t enough. The is because its open until 4am and whenever I’ve turned up there has always been a queue and if that hasn’t been bad enough I think the bouncers were going on a one in, one out policy. However I have a big problem with Live Lounge and the story goes something like this…
When my friends and I went there the other week we all walked in no problems but then got a call from our one of our friends that was still outside (we hadn’t noticed and assumed he was with us). As it turned out the bouncer refused to let him in because had tattoos on both of his upper arms and was wearing sleeveless shirt. Another one of my friends lent him his jacket but my friend with the tattoo was explicitly told if he removed the jacket he would be banned.
Banned for having a couple of tattoos?
There were people inside dressed in shorts and yet my friend was threatened with a banning and these tattoos weren’t offensive in any way it’s just the bouncer seemingly decided he didn’t like the look of my friend.
What it comes down to is the drinks can be as cheap as chips and the music can be the best but frankly I ‘am simply not impressed that this club would employ someone who would consider turning someone away because of the way they look. Enough said!

What can you say about the Live Lounge that hasn’t already been said? I think you simply must go yourself to experience the thing.
If you’ve got a chip on your shoulder or an angular haircut you will hate it. If you’re sober you will hate it too. But if you need that one last drink, just one more drink and if you have the urge to bellow along to Journey’s ubiquitous Don’t Stop Believing (They’ve played it without fail every time I’ve been) then this is the place for you. Booze is cheap, comes in plastic glasses and is poured well into the night, every night.
I can only talk about this place from the perspective of a guy *checks pants* for I am one but I think it’s quite a different prospect for a girl. Live Lounge is always a sausage fest and even I’ve been creeped out by the fellas in blue check shirts staring at anything in a skirt. And you’ll find some interesting things in skirts here as the bouncers seem to be quite lax when it comes to ID.
Live Lounge is Cardiff’s last chance saloon for the boozers and the horny. If that sounds like you then come on in.

Live Lounge is one of those places where people opt to go to at the end of the night on any day of the week as it is open until 4am. The drinks are dirty cheap with a glass of wine being only a quid! The cheapest vino I’ve ever known, but remember that saying, you get what you pay for, that is most definitely true in this instance.
There are two floors to this venue, the main one downstairs for the bouncing around and the upstairs floor for the sitting and drinking like sophisticated human beings. The toilets in this place are a bit strange, they remind me of one of those doors to a bar that swings open, they latch at the middle to stop the toilet intruders but there is quite the gap at the bottom and top of the door, I never want to feel like I’m pissing to an audience to be honest, so needless to say, these toilers are avoided by me.
One of the fine things about live lounge is not just its evening antics but also the daytime happenings, live music is on every day at all hours, if you have a craving, just pop by to this bar and it will be satisfied, but only if you like your live music in the shape of cover songs.

Just around the corner from the busy Queen’s street, is Cardiff’s party lover’s dream, Live Lounge. It ticks all the boxes needed for a good night out. Firstly, it’s open until 4am, later than the other mainstream clubs of Cardiff, drinks that won’t break the bank (including 2−4−1 tasty cocktail offers), and cool live music to rival any rock band!
Popular with the indie loving crowd, students, and locals, Live Lounge is always packed full with all walks of life, great fun and really sociable. Just be prepared to feel like a sardine as all the other clubs close and everyone crowds in to squeeze in a few more hours of partying! And girls, you will be queuing a while to use the loo… So, maybe Live Lounge is most known as the place you all end up at the end of a night to try and fit in out one last dance and drink… even when you know your beer soaked brain is trying to tell you just to go home to bed instead!
However, one controversial factor has recently changed, they have stopped letting people enter after 2am, but if you’re already inside before this time you can stay until 4am, so maybe this will help the crowding situation and leave more room for shape cutting and dance floor lunging (you know you do this too!).

Live Lounge is a bit of a confused animal. I’ve been in a few times, but never for long!
It boasts live music, pretty much all day with music at lunchtime, tea time and late evening, but seemingly they prefer covers bands playing popular songs of today — so why not just have a juke box? They also seem to like to keep their light firmly under a bushel by not actually telling anyone about the daytime live music, with the bands regularly playing to the staff.
The bar is pretty big, with a reasonable upstairs area. There is a decent sized stage and a dance floor. Not much seating, and what seating there is does seem a little confused!
Who wouldn’t want their own booth with beer fridge/​cooler and table service? But what if the booth only has one exit point so if anyone needs the loo there will either be climbing to filing in and out? And what if any of the party are over 4foot tall? They won’t be able to see one another under the massive lamp hanging over the table. And the cooler — there is an ice-​bucket in the centre of the table — directly under the low lamp. I’m sure lamps are hot and doesn’t heat melt ice?
The most appealing feature of Live Lounge seems to be that it is cheap and open late. Well, all power to them!

A surprising staple to the Cardiff party scene, this is the place where all nights go to grind to an embarrassing halt in the funniest of fashions.
The drinks are cheap, the atmosphere is lively and the staff are always willing to recommend the decent cocktail which will inevitably fuel your indecency.
Upstairs is full of great places to sit and watch this mayhem unfold, and on the ground floor there are plenty of large seating areas for those rare times you manage to stay with all of your mates until this stage of the night.
Of course, for those drunk enough to dance, there is always the dancefloor. Don’t be afraid, you will know all the songs. As this is the bar where ever one ends up somewhere between Chippy Lane and bed, the music is pretty middle of the road. Don’t expect anything more than all the standard pop and cheese.
Yes, occasionally, Live Lounge has an abundance of drama and credit must go to the bouncers. These guys truly have the patience of saints as they deal with boozed up lads, sickly girls and annoying people like me who continue in their attempts to master that elaborate and allusive art of drunk, witty banter.
URBAN CHALLENGE: Make a doorman laugh

There are three things I love about Live Lounge: 1. It’s open later than most bars; 2. They play live music; and 3. The price of drinks are unrivalled for a Cardiff bar of this calibre.
Very few venues in Cardiff offer live music for the masses on a night out without having to book in advance. Live Lounge not only draw in customers with on-​stage bands, but they persuade them to stay with a host of awesome offers that are virtually impossible to refuse.
You can order a bottle of beer for as cheap as a pound, selected shots for the same price and get a glass of house wine for… yep, a shiny gold pound. Anywhere in Cardiff you can get three drinks for under a fiver is alright in my book. They also offer a buy-​one-​get-​one-​free promotion on cocktails which, when coupled with the live music and party atmosphere, there really are no excuses for not enjoying your night out.
On a Friday or Saturday night, this bar is one of the liveliest in Cardiff, frequently packed to its capacity. However, if you are visiting during the day, the bar is a completely different place. It’s usually very quiet and peaceful making it a prime location to chill out and relax or have a bite to eat during a long day of work, shopping or sight-​seeing in the capitol.
All in all, Live Lounge is a distinctly different bar with a lot of unique assets that make it stand out from the usual crowd of «collar and shoes» clubs. If you are looking for something different on a night out, you will find it in Live Lounge.

Live Lounge gets big points from me almost entirely on the basis that I feel like I should hate it, and yet somehow I don’t.
I’m a fan of the «quiet drink» and the popularity of this place means that quiet drinks aren’t really on the menu here. However, cheap drinks are, and I am a really, really big fan of cheap drinks. They serve good cocktails too, and I am gradually being transformed from a bottle of beer type girl, to a bright coloured and fruity cocktail type girl because of this place.
Having an upstairs area can occasionally provide brief relief of the crush of the bar and the dance floor, but once other bars and clubs start closing, Live Lounge quite quickly becomes a little bit like sardine tin.
However, as the name suggests, there is all kinds of live music here, and a lot of the bands that play in Live Lounge are pretty good. You should definitely check out The Big What?! Band next time they’re playing. They are really very good.
It’s not really my kind of place, but I’m always happy to go and have a great time while I’m there.

Located centrally, just off pedestrianised Queen Street shopping area, Live Lounge is sure to get even more popular amongst its main target alternative/​indie crowd now that nearby rival venue the Barfly has apparently closed its doors for the foreseeable future.
This late night live music venue and night club serves up pretty cheap drinks (and food until 9pm) and is open a lot later than most bars and clubs (until about 5am most nights, though I’d never survive that long!). This means there’s always a mass exodus to this bar in the early hours by those who don’t want their night to end.
It’s generally busy late on, full of good-​natured drinkers, but there’s plenty of dancefloor to squeeze onto, with DJ music spanning many different genres and live bands on some nights (hence the name). For indie fans, it’s a good night out.

This is most definitely one of my top 5 places to go in Cardiff on a night out! Admittedly it may not be the kind of bar that everybody loves to go to but that surely makes it the Marmite of bars in Cardiff. You’ll either fall in love with the place instantly or you will leave pretty sharpish to seek something a bit more like everywhere else. I have even known people to verbalise their disgust with the establishment before leaving, only to return in the early hours of the morning.
The bar is in a great central location just off of the main Queen Street drag, tucked in nicely behind the Hilton hotel on The Friary. Even if you get there after 9pm and want to grab a bite to eat, you’re close enough to nip out and grab something nearby; you can also get more cash and perhaps cigarettes all within a 5 minute trot.
I’ve been coming here for a few years now and although in that time it has been known by a few different names, the friendly and inviting atmosphere has always remained. The entrance itself is very open and if you should happen to wander up The Friary you will find yourself either being drawn by live performing bands, or classic tunes blasted out by a Dj, either will entice you to go inside for a peak.
When you enter through the relatively modestly sized entrance you may be surprised at the room inside. It instantly opens out to high ceilings and a split level bar and dance floor with an impressive light show in play. The bar staff are always friendly whether you are a first-​timer or a regular face. If you are a regular here however, it may well be worth your while asking one of the staff about the membership option which will grant you free entry.
So, combining the friendly atmosphere, polite and courteous staff, eclectic performances and happening Djs with the offers they continuously make on £1.00 bottles of lager, £5.00 bottles of wine and 2 for 1 deals on cocktails, I really have to say that I give this bar a 5 star rating. If you don’t go and check it out you may well live to regret it!

Live Lounge is one of my least favourite places in all of Cardiff. When it first opened I was wowed by the 5am close every night and the cheap drinks, but so was the rest of Cardiff it seems. It’s now so full most nights that you can barely move in there. What I dislike most about it though, is that as it’s pretty much the only bar open until that late/​early, I almost always end up there, the lure of «just one more drink» too powerful. Before I know it I find myself absolutely hammered and screaming Journey songs at the top of my voice. That only happens after queuing for what seems like forever though. It can take ages to get served at the bar in here too and I’ve waited up to half an hour in some cases.
See you in there next Saturday night at 4am.

I want to write poems about this place.
Live Lounge is the last chance saloon for the rest of Cardiff. Open until 4am, it is the stopping off place for the most hardcore patrons of every other bar in Cardiff, so chances are by about half 3, you’re going to know at least three different groups of people in there.
The cocktails are delicious, and made with consummate skill. One bartender in particular knows the ins-​and-​outs of his bar, and it shows. Every member of the barstaff in fact are cheerful, energetic and entertaining. Drinks are preposterously cheap, which is always a nice bonus (£5 for a bottle of wine quickly sends any female friends down the slippery slope of happy alcoholism).
With live music performed by a selection of the top local Cardiff bands every lunchtime and evening, the club certainly earns its name. And, whilst it is always packed, and can sometimes get a little hairy in there, it is always fun and rarely an annoyance to end up there at the end of the night.

This is a great place whether you’re there for a quite drink or meal during the day, or if you are there for a rocking night out. Went there for lunch with my 3 yaer old son and they had an acoustic set from a solo guitarist — fab…

Right, here is the break down of the rating I’ve given Live Lounge:
1* — It is open until 5 in the morning every day of the week. Now, I feel like this is how late most clubs should stay open but most of the places here shut at 2 or 3. As a result, there is always a surge towards Live Lounge when the clubs let out.
2* — And, to be honest, 3*s as well, for the prices of the drinks which are quite ridiculously cheap. They are also really good and the cocktails are delicious. The bar can get pretty busy so I wouldn’t recommend having the cocktails at night but at lunchtime or in the evening, they’re a must.
4* — The music caters to a lot of tastes. A standard night will see people dancing to 90s cheese, club classics, a little bit of indie and some RnB. If you’re looking for more specialised music they also have a lot of live bands playing.
5* — The building in general. The dance floor is big, it’s located near a cash point (and near fastfood for those who’ve had too much). It’s near the main clubs. It’s near the union. It’s near the taxi rank.