Emo pop-up bar lets you whine in the basement one more time—over cocktails—at 9th & State

Sugar, we’re going out drinking. I’ll be your number one with a bourbon.

February 21, 2023

Tyler Schneider, Anna Perry-Rushton,

When We Were Youngish. // Photo by Anna Perry-Rushton

At “When We Were Youngish,” the latest Apparition hosted pop-up bar experience to be had at 9th & State (1717 W 9th St.) through March 25, you and your top-ranked MySpace friends can relive all the thrills and frills that accompanied the formative experience of hanging out in someone’s basement in 2005.

If it weren’t made clear by that intro or the mock bedroom in the foyer area at the base of the stairs, this is an emo themed bar. The scene here (which, by the way, I wouldn’t front even if you paid me) is as apt a transition as any into the dreamy, nostalgic fugue state I am about to enter as I suddenly remember all the words to Boys Like Girls’ “Great Escape” for the first time in 16 years. A growing collection of selfies from the era is on the wall closest to the stairs. I’m not okay. From the looks of it, none of us have been for time.

We’re then led to a coffin hi-top table, our backs facing a plethora of posters ranging from the obligatory and enduring legacy of the Black Parade Tour to earlier influencers like Thursday, Jimmy Eat World, Taking Back Sunday, and several of those ones named ironic sports names through to the height of the genre’s peak pop-punk prospects like Paramore, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, etc. There’s more than enough here in the decor to ignite some sort of conversation in even the tightest, nut huggingest jean wearers and dead-rooted bang splicers among us.

Sean Smith’s drink menu includes nine featured cocktails, two group drink orders, three shots, as well as stock PBR tallboys and Four Loko. I began with the Hawthorne Heights nod, “Ohio Is For Lovers,” made of Old Overholt Rye Whiskey, Pierre Ferrand cognac, Dolin sweet vermouth, benedictine liqueur, cherry topper. I could’ve ordered another had I not wanted to sample other offerings.

Other early highlights at my table ranged from the “Emocore Kid” (Sour Patch Kids-infused vodka, Sprite, and lemon juice), “Painkiller” (dark rum, pinneapple, orange juices, coconut milk, nutmeg), and “Up All Night” (St. George Nola coffee liqueur, Secret Recipe Batch, cold brew espresso, dark chocolate and syrups).

We broke up our rounds with three shots dubbed the “Dirty Little Secret” (Five Farms Irish Cream, Strawberry Schnapps), “Team Edward” (Hiram Walker Peach Schnapps, Strawberry Schnapps), and the “Team Jacob,” Seagram’s, Amaretto, cranberry juice). “If this is what you want, then fire at will.”

The second half of the menu includes the “Pop Punk Revival” (Una Familia tequila blanco, Pierre Ferrand dry curacao, lime juice, agave syrup, side dish of pop-rocks), which goes down smooth, and the “Dark and Angsty” (Plantation Aged Rum, raspberry liqueur, mint syrup, lime juice, ginger beer), which has more of a bite but definitely grows on one with each sip.

My compadres continued their respective nights with the “Mad Love,” (Hayman’s Old Town Gin, Cocchi Americana Aperitivo, Pierre Ferrand dry curacao, absinthe wash, lemon juice, maraska cherry), and the “Never Been Kissed” (Una Familia Tequila Blanco, La Luna mezcal, tomatillo juice, Ancho Reyes Verde Chile liqueur, turmeric syrup, lime). At one point around this part of the evening, some Deftones started playing over the speaker, and although they aren’t ‘of the genre,’ the general reception was positive to say the least.

Other options we hadn’t the time or tolerance to partake in included the “My Bloody Valentine” (vodka, Leroux Triple Sec, cranberry, served in a “souvenir blood bag”), as well as a pair of options for larger parties in “I Miss You”—a $45 group drink for four (Hiram Walker Peach Schnapps, La Marca Prosecco, and pomegranate), and “Welcome to the Jack Parade” (a Jack Daniels shot flight for four).

All in all, the night was an experience to be shared with other (mostly) Millennials who lived through a particularly bizarre period in pop culture that we still hold quite close to our bleeding hearts.

While we were young back then, it was a true pleasure to now have the option to spend a night out so far out of the reach of teenagers, who, as you may have guessed, were indeed the subject of a rather popular My Chemical Romance song and probably not welcome at the Black Parade, nor at the pop-up’s regularly scheduled Thursday bingo contests and Taking Back Sundays Trivia scenes.

So long, and goodnight (x2).

Photos by Anna Perry-Rushton