Bards are amazing, and don't let anyone tell you any different.
It's one of my personal favorite classes: the ability to specialize in one aspect of an adventuring party (combat, stealth/skills, healing, buffing, combat magic) and still be decent at the other types is a glorious thing. While it is a 'joke class' to a great many people ("I walk into dungeons and sing at people"), the reality is that it's one of the greatest classes available, and it has been for quite some time. In Pathinder, the ability to pick up an Archetype to really focus your bardic abilities opens up a great deal with it: I have an 'Arcane Duelist' character who's an eight foot tall amazonian woman and the party's melee.I also have a narcoleptic catfolk bard (Sandman archetype) who's crowd control is amazing, putting enemies to sleep and ripping enemy spells out of mid-air.
In 3.5 have Smiling Dreamer, the young coyote-folk in the longest running game I've ever been in (and one of the games I got to play from beginning to end). Sweet little Smiles just picked up whatever the party needed at the time, while acting as their healer. He became the party's favored ally, which was nice.
Frost is the Bard as Cerulean is to Cleric. I love'm. Before Kiyoshi, my original thought was to create a bardic support character, but went with the wizard because I felt the party needed one. With all the hell that Kiyoshi puts Asmodeus through, as well as my own fun levels, I regret not going with my original (musical) choice.