Lakota

Lakota has weathered the tide of closures that swept Clockwork, Native and the Croft away, as if its thick coat of graffiti might have pickled it like a gaudy preservative. The mean-looking building conceals a busy warren built around one tall, central atrium, which packs to the galleries two or three nights a week. It is still one of the vital organs of Bristol's clubbing scene, posting a schedule of house, hardcore and techno DJs and representing the local passions for drum and bass, dub and dub-step. At 25 years old, Lakota feels almost respectable, although anyone who has witnessed the spectacularly unruly psy-trance night "Tribe of Frog" would be hard pressed to use that word.

• 6 Upper York Street, 0117 923 2225, lakota.co.uk. Check venue website for event details

The Old Duke

The venerable grandee whose likeness swings on the pub sign is none other than Sir Duke himself, a fitting figurehead for Bristol's foremost jazz bar. It's been there for decades; the posters that plaster the ceiling date from a time long before jazz backed into the margins. And yet every night, without rest, the stage creaks under another band, and the two lamplit rooms heave with people. Its greatest success has been avoiding the tendency other good jazz bars have to become unapproachable and sneery, and it shares a street with two more of the nicest pubs in central Bristol: the King William Ale House and the Famous Royal Navy Volunteer.

• 45 King Street, 0117 927 7137, theoldduke.co.uk. Live music 8.30pm nightly

The Louisiana

Photograph: PYMCA/UIG via Getty Images

At the corner of a Georgian terrace and belted with a covered iron balcony, the Louis' would look more at home up the hill in Clifton than at the eastern tip of Spike Island in the docklands. The exterior is almost smugly picturesque, and the interior justly boasts the venue's proven skill in booking indie acts on the brink of stardom. Emerging bands are increasingly willing to dogleg their tours via the Louis' despite its poky stage and meagre capacity, and many serious fans from London or the north will make the trip here for the chance to stand in spitting distance of the next big thing.

• Wapping Road, 0117 926 5978, thelouisiana.net. Live bands every weekend and most weeknights

Cosies

There is something uniquely Bristolian about Cosies, which ranks among the most laid-back nightclubs in Britain. The word nightclub is used loosely here: Cosies styles itself – extremely misleadingly – as a wine bar, and maintains a convincing aura of sophistication during daylight hours. At night, however, it is a wriggling jungle of dreadlocks and cider, where distinguished reggae DJs thud the foundations of Portland Square. Despite its dancefloor being a claustrophobic underground cavern, Cosies is true to its name. The wooden pews and low brick ceiling offer a snug, cottage-like welcome, and there are two barrelled stone dens at the front where smokers of every leaning can make themselves at home.

• 38 Portland Square, 0117 942 4110, cosies.co.uk. Open Mon 11-9pm, Tues-Thurs 11am-10pm, Fri 11am-till late, Sat-Sun 9pm-till late, DJs Thu-Sun, admission £3

Thekla

Photograph: Kit Buchan

Once a German ocean-going timber vessel, the Thekla sailed to Bristol in the 1980s and was recommissioned as a cabaret theatre by a couple of eccentrics. Nowadays, the lineup is perhaps less subversive and bizarre than it was, but Thekla remains the biggest and best of Bristol's floating venues – her metal hull acting as a unique, if acoustically challenging, chamber for noisy gigs. Despite several renovations, the experience of going to Thekla is somehow improved by the nagging concern that she might spring a leak at any moment, plunging the band and crowd into a photogenic rock'n'roll catastrophe. There's a wide wooden deck from which to survey the lights of the floating harbour before going below again into her rattling belly.

• The Grove, East Mud Dock, 0117 929 3301, theklabristol.co.uk. Check venue website for event details

Mr Wolf's

Photograph: Jon Kent

This narrow and unprepossessing joint contents itself with booking unrenowned but capable bands three nights a week. These are followed by unrenowned but capable DJs, who keep the two rooms in good spirits much later than any of the bigger, glossier bars in the city centre. It would be unusual to go there with the intention of seeing anyone in particular, but even so, new acts receive a cheerier response at Mr Wolf's than anywhere else, and the general warmth of the atmosphere – along with the inexplicable provision of cheap noodles late into the night – make it a wise choice for anyone who wants to be absolutely certain of having a nice time.

• 33 St Stephen's Street, 0117 927 3221, mrwolfs.com. Open Mon 6pm-2am, Tues-Wed 6pm-3am, Thurs and Sat 6pm-4am, Fri midnight-4am, Sun 7pm-1am

The Fleece

Photograph: Adam Gasson/Future Publishin/REX/Rex Features

The Fleece is a utilitarian cuboid with a gleefully unfashionable calendar. This is not to say that prominent and promising musicians don't find their way here – it's a sizeable and reputable place in an excellent location – but it is rather like an intersection of opposing escalators, at which bright-eyed freshmen meet their predecessors on the descent from greatness. In the same non-exclusive vein, the Fleece is also the Bristol stopover for a surprising number of tribute bands, whose consistent popularity is testament to their curious brand of talent and to the venue's lack of snobbery.

• 12 St Thomas Street, 0117 945 0996, thefleece.co.uk. Open Mon-Wed 7pm-2am, Thurs-Fri 7pm-4am, Sat 6pm-4am, Sun 1pm-2am

The Canteen

The Canteen, Bristol

Presided over by a work by Bristol street artist Banksy, the Canteen splits opinion. Critics consider it the storefront of gentrification in Stokes Croft, which roughly coincided with its appearance in 2009, while its advocates argue that it has effectively amplified the local sense of community and provided a platform for that community to express itself. Either way, the simple glass-fronted venue is popular, and its roster of excellent free gigs has an international character involving jazz, reggae, blues, folk and sundry combinations thereof. The kitchen is similarly cosmopolitan, whose embarrassingly good food (trout rillettes with pickled cucumber, lemon polenta with rosemary) does it no favours with the detractors.

• Hamilton House, 80 Stokes Croft, 0117 923 2017, canteenbristol.co.uk. Open Mon-Thurs and Sun 10am-midnight, Fri-Sat 10am-1pm

The Golden Lion

Gloucester Road is the pride of Bristol, having maintained its singular variety of independent businesses and local colour in the face of the general standardisation of high streets nationwide. At the Horfield end, near the prison and a bit too far for most students, the Golden Lion channels the local jollity into its numerous gigs, which vary from local funk and swing bands to grizzled balladeers making their rounds of the West Country. Distinguishable by the lopsided mural daubed across its face like a birthmark, its enormous popularity is down to the liveliness and genuine goodwill of its loyal clientele. It is, in other words, what so many pub venues would like to be.

• 244 Gloucester Road, 0117 924 6449, goldenlionbristol.co.uk. Open Mon 5pm-midnight, Tues-Thurs and Sun midday-midnight, Fri-Sat midday-1am

St George's

St George's, Bristol

Underneath Cabot Tower on Brandon Hill, this decommissioned church functions primarily as a classical concert hall, rivalling the larger and better-know Colston Hall on the other side of Park Street. But more and more prominent folk singers and respected travelling bands are ending up here, presumably to take advantage of the neo-classical acoustics and the imposing mood of hushed reverence. With its whitewashed interior and quiet setting, it induces a particular sense of uncluttered ceremony in its audiences, making it is easily the best of the more decorous Bristol venues, and one which is largely unknown to non-locals.

• 5 Great George Street, 0845 402 4001, stgeorgesbristol.co.uk. Check venue website for event details

• Kit Buchan is a former Bristol resident and plays in the band I Said Yes

For more information, go to the Visit Bristol website