The Grapes, Bury St. Edmunds

forget here if you want a good night out; sad, tired and rude

Having seen this place packed on a Saturday night, with live music blaring out of the windows, we decided to give it a try on the following Sunday evening. Unfortunately, it didn't appear to be anywhere near as popular without the band playing and we found ourselves having much of the large L-shaped room to ourselves.The ale selection was restricted to Greene King IPA and Abbot Ale with bottles of Old Speckled Hen in the fridges. My pint of Abbot was in fairly good shape and cost £2.75. Posters around the pub confirmed that the place is a thriving live music venues, with acts lined up on virtually every night of the week. A fine selection of music was being piped through the pub at a reasonable volume, unless you happened to be sitting near one of the speakers.Seating is arranged around the edge of the pub, with banquettes along the walls to the left of the entrance and standard tables and chairs to the right. A couple of plush sofas reside towards the rear of the pub as well. Smokers were taking advantage of a covered outdoor seating area situated out the back.Not a bad pub, but the drab interior and poor beer selection would probably prevent me from returning unless I wanted to catch some live music.