The task of writing a review of the latest edition to Cardiff’s gay nightlife proved a little harder than expected. You see, when Team Gay walked through the doors of Pulse on Churchill Way, we noted the swanky Ikea wall paper, the novelty of lockable toilets and the buzzing environment, but we also noticed that drinks were stupidly cheap.
After several £3 doubles, the editors of Quench’s gay section were somewhat inebriated and most of what Pulse had to offer was wasted on us.
With three floors on offer, Pulse makes good use of the limited space available. It offers a comfortable bar area on the ground floor, a small dance floor upstairs and a larger dance floor in the basement that was not far reminisant from Mad Max’s Thunderdome due to its epic circular appearance. A far cry from the flashing floor tiles of Exit we all know and love. The environment was arguably more apocolyptic than the average gay club, with the cliental so het up, it was unclear whether they were hitting on you or starting on you.
Another problem lies with the allocated bar space being relatively small. This inevitablely resulted in long queues, frustrated punters and the devastation of missing out on such 90s RnB ‘classics’ as Ghetto Superstar. The play list, for saturday night at least, seemed a little hit and miss with several gays seen running for cover during Mika.
On a more positive note, the option of going somewhere different on a Saturday night was greatly appreciated. What us Cardiff gays have always lacked is a choice and now, with three sizeable gay clubs on offer, we can’t really complain. With Fanny Dazzle’s Monday evening karaoke and a Wednesday student night set to rival Club X’s similar offering, it would seem that Pulse is playing it safe, dabbling in already established traits of the Cardiff scene. What remains to be seen is whether Pulse will thrive or fade in to oblivion, like Addiction did several years back. We certainly would hope not.
