The Tap Music Lounge

Head down to Lauriston Place and you'll find a bar that gets live music right—not the kind where a backing track drowns out your mates. The Tap Music Lounge pulls in folk from across the Southside and beyond, all after the same thing: decent drinks and actual musicians who know what they're doing. It's got that sweet spot between feeling sociable and intimate; you're never fighting to be heard, but the room's got enough energy that it doesn't feel like you're whispering in a library. The clientele's mixed—students, locals who've been going for years, folk just after a solid night out. Nothing pretentious about it.