So picture it: you walk into a cavernous space in Everett, Washington—Apex event center, if we’re using the map name—and you’re hit with this unholy marriage of caffeine haze and punk-rock nocturne. This is El Sid, opening August 9, a kind of cultural hallucination-slash-bar inspired by none other than Sid Vicious, the late Sex Pistols bassist and eternal patron saint of self-destruction.
The name alone carries its own rotting rose scent of myth: Sid, who was charged (but never convicted) with killing his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, overdosed in 1979 before the American courts could officially convict him. In the rock ’n’ roll ether, he remains a cautionary tale, an anti-hero with a safety pin jammed through the heart of polite society.
El Sid is the fever dream of John Carswell, founder of Apex. He grew up in the punk scene, “mohawk and all,” he says, a phrase that is simultaneously a badge and a confession. He’s translating that raw, sneering energy into a brick-and-mortar cathedral of espresso shots by day and cocktails with enough edge to scratch glass by night.
There’s a menu, of course—because every altar needs its sacraments. Take London Calling, named after that Clash anthem that sounds like a bomb going off underwater. This is a bright, jagged mix of City of London Gin, lemon, strawberry, and soda—like a British summer distilled into a tall glass, except with more attitude.
Then there’s Astro Zombie, a zombie riff that channels The Misfits’ brand of cartoon violence: spiced rum and enough fruitiness to make you hallucinate Glenn Danzig tearing through your living room.
And, of course, The Vicious: a blood-red whiskey cocktail with a “bitter edge,” designed to haunt your taste buds the same way Sid’s last shows haunted CBGB. It’s part dirge, part fight song, and all punk.
El Sid’s opening syncs up with Apex’s third annual Preserve the Kulture event—a street-level bacchanal of urban art, music, and community. “Apex Everett isn’t just a venue—it’s a phenomenon,” Carswell says, in a sentence that reads like a lyric sheet from a lost Dead Boys single. “With El Sid setting the tone, we’re putting Snohomish County nightlife back on the map in a whole new way.”
If you ever needed proof that punk isn’t dead, just caffeinated and perhaps slightly tipsy, you’ll find it in Everett this August. For more, visit Apex Everett.
