X & Y Bar - CLOSED

Overview

When X & Y Bar launched in 2009, owners Chris Smith, Pete Eldon and Eugene Luongo aimed to bring Brisbane a relaxed live music venue with an equally relaxed dress code. Fast forward two years and X & Y is packed out every weekend with a hyperactive crowd of sweaty youths. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

During the week the bar still plays host to live bands and on these nights X & Y Bar is how it should be; a laidback bunker-like venue with a quirky tongue-in-cheek interior. Some people accuse the interior’s street signs, wire fences, fish tanks and wooden booths of being tacky and I can’t help but be reminded of A Night at the Roxbury’s ‘outside is the inside’ theme. It’s not supposed to be taken seriously. Downstairs things are a tad more swish with a James Bond inspired cocktail bar which, even on the weekends, is a glowing oasis from the hustle and bustle of the upstairs dance floor. Down here you don’t usually have to fight your way through an intense crowd to get to the bar and the bartenders can take the time to make you a killer, albeit expensive, cocktail.

The outside graffiti covered courtyard is a nice place to grab a breath of fresh air on a weeknight. Venture out there on a weekend however and passive smoking is all that you will be able to achieve. This is a shame because inside can be so incredibly hot and cramped with little room to grab a breather to cool off.

To its credit the DJs and downstairs drinks are the best things about X & Y. Their reputable resident DJs Cutloose, SLYNK and Danny Cool know how to get people partying, mashing new dance and hip hop music with a range of crowd-pleasing guilty pleasures. It’s the messy crowd that lets the venue down, and the aggressive stares you receive from the bouncers at the entrance can put a dampener on the night before it’s even started.