I’ll start with Leeds (Leeeeeeeeeeds):
Feel free to comment any honorable mentions or mitigating scenarios.
Was impressed with Project House but The Brud is the best venue in the country imo
Sheffield
Utrecht
For me it’s a close call between the two University venues. Heard good things about Sidney and Matilda but haven’t been yet; might see Burning Hell there in September. Yellow Arch is good as a smaller venue.
Leadmill is a good venue, potentially great but with everything going off they haven’t had a good bill for quite a few years 
A mate is seeing Brian Jonestown Massacre at Foundry later and has a spare ticket. Not a band I know at all but the venue is good enough to tempt me on it’s own. That being said, after having compiled the venue list for Leeds (a bigger city, admittedly), it does feel like Sheffield would benefit from a few more mid-tier venues (500-1000 range).
Yeah Sheffield’s great for DIY venues but mid range places are shit. Queens social was the best in that range but is dead. Yellow Arch is a cool place but the sight lines are awful. Sidney & Matilda is really good aye, may grab a ticket to Burning Hell
Project House benefits (in my head) from being relatively new still; I’ve had 5 gigs there and they’ve all been great. Many more at Brude, of course, but a few have been disappointing. It’s close, I think PH is slightly better aligned with my taste currently so it just wins.
Dunno if it’s a lack of venues or a lack of interest from bands/bookers for the midsize venue thing though. Think Manchester and Leeds are such mainstays on tour schedules that Sheffield doesn’t get a look in unless there’s a lot of dates
Yeah was going to say this…even if Leadmill was transformed and became Sheffield’s Brudenell or Albert Hall…most non-UK bands don’t have the reach to have dates in Manchester, Leeds AND Sheffield.
Someone do Manchester so we can all vote Albert Hall (although John Grant at Bridgewater in 2014 was one of my favourite gigs ever)
And lastly before I derail the thread with my stream of consciousness relating to Sheffield venues, it makes sense then why Octagon/Foundry have the best prospects as decent sized venues; because they have diverse uses and aren’t solely relying on touring bands.
(I worry slightly that Project House has a lot of Yoga nights…)
O2 academy everywhere
What do you think the best one of all is?
Bristol
The Lanes and the Cube are the only notable omissions I can think of, both of which are quite good but nobody’s favourite.
Oh and Loco Klub, see above.
I’ve been too a couple of ropey gigs at project house. Bad sound the biggest issue and it really needs air conditioning. Hottest gig I’ve ever been too was in there.
Brudenell wins by a country mile.
Who did you see? That’s a shame like as my experience of it has always been great. Hopefully some of the niggles can be or already have been ironed out with it being still relatively new.
I’ve seen Jeff Rosenstock, Fat White Family, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Clipping and John Grant there (decent supports too like John Francis Flynn and Big Special) so a decent variety. No I do not work for their PR department.
Is Moira a serious one @Octobadger? Only times I’ve seen live music there it’s a bit loose, like one of those old theatres that was so many other things for many years and now it’s a kind of run down version of them all.
Curious what @lyserge 's other is too. I did realise after that I missed 't Oude Pothuys
No, not been to gigs in any of the places that had polls at the time I voted. Just voting on uninformed hunches.