What is playing at APEX Everett on June 27, 2026?
Petty Thief, Seattle’s tribute to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, headlines Kings Hall at APEX on Saturday June 27, 2026. Opening the night is Pretenders UK, a Seattle-based four-piece recreating the early 1980s Pretenders. Show time is 8:00 PM. Tickets from $41 via Ticketmaster (event 0F00647F843C4809). Kings Hall is located at 1611 Everett Ave, Everett, WA 98201.
Verdict: GO. Petty Thief is the most authentic Tom Petty tribute in the Pacific Northwest — nineteen years running, a current lineup that has been working together since 2017, and a philosophy that treats the catalog as worth getting right. Pretenders UK brings the early Chrissie Hynde era specifically, which is where the Pretenders’ best work lives. Together on the Kings Hall stage for one Saturday night, this is the kind of double-bill where the opening act is not a throwaway.
Three conditions met for GO: the lineup does not exist anywhere else in this market window, Kings Hall is the right room for this material, and tickets from $41 for two bands is fair-market or below.
Everett’s newest dedicated concert stage has spent its first year building a habit of landing acts that could be playing larger rooms in Seattle but show up here instead. The Crystal Method and Rabbit in the Moon in June. All City Fight Night in May. Petty Thief and Pretenders UK on June 27 continues that calendar. The value of a room like Kings Hall is that it does not require an act to be an arena act. The material Tom Petty recorded was designed to be played live in a room where you can hear every guitar part, where the room fills with the sound of the band, and where the person next to you is as locked in as you are. That is what you get here.
Petty Thief: Nineteen Years of Not Being a Novelty Act
Tom Petty died on October 2, 2017. He was 66. He left behind 40 years of recordings with the Heartbreakers that defined what American rock looked like when it was running correctly — inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, five number-one albums, and a catalog that still sounds like it was written yesterday when played in a room where the speakers are pointed at you.
Petty Thief did not form in response to that loss. Andy Volmer started the band in 2007 as a Halloween spoof — he and some friends dressed as Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and called themselves “Refugees” for one party. That was supposed to be the end of it.
It wasn’t. By 2026, Petty Thief is in its nineteenth year, and the current lineup — Volmer, Steve Crabtree, Mark Mosholder, John Paredes, and Rick Bourgoin — has been performing together since the fall of 2017. The five of them locked in right after Petty’s death and set a standard for themselves that Volmer has described explicitly: “We wanted to approach the tribute genre as a true live rock and roll band, not a novelty act.”
That matters because the Tom Petty tribute circuit has a lot of novelty acts. Costume shows. Medley bands. Revues built around three songs everyone knows and a lot of filler. Petty Thief plays the full catalog — “American Girl,” “Free Fallin’,” “I Won’t Back Down,” “The Waiting,” “Breakdown,” “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” “Learning to Fly” — and treats the material the way Petty would have wanted it treated: as rock songs, not museum exhibits.
The current lineup is the most stable the band has ever been. When five musicians have been playing the same catalog together for almost a decade, what you hear is not a band approximating the sound — it’s a band that has internalised it. There is a difference, and you can hear it live.
Pretenders UK: The Opening Act That Is Also a Reason to Show Up Early
Pretenders UK opens the bill. They are a Seattle-based four-piece, and their specific commitment is to the early 1980s Pretenders — the Chrissie Hynde era that produced the records most people associate with the band’s peak.
That era produced “Brass in Pocket” in 1979. “Talk of the Town” in 1981. “Back on the Chain Gang” in 1982. “Middle of the Road” in 1984. It is the decade when the Pretenders were defining what new wave sounded like when it had real guitar work behind it — harder than the synth acts of the period, more melodic than punk, built around Hynde’s rhythm guitar and voice in a way that no one else in that window matched.
Pretenders UK focuses on that era specifically. That is a curatorial choice, and it’s the right one. The original Pretenders went through significant lineup changes across the decade — the early 1980s period is musically coherent in a way the later catalog is not. A tribute band that picks an era and commits to it is a different proposition than one trying to cover everything. Show up before 8:00 PM. Pretenders UK is not a warm-up.
Why This Double-Bill Works
Tom Petty and Chrissie Hynde were not the same kind of artist, and that is the reason this bill lands well. Petty was American heartland rock — guitars, road imagery, working-class romanticism delivered with a Gainesville, Florida drawl that managed to sound both regional and universal. The Pretenders were a British-American hybrid, new wave by genre classification but louder and more guitar-forward than that label implies, anchored by a frontwoman who wrote differently than her contemporaries.
The two catalogs share a refusal to be precious. Petty’s music worked at stadium scale and on a car radio simultaneously. The Pretenders played arenas and sounded like they had something to prove every night. Both bands earned their place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by making records that did not age out.
A double-bill built around this pair of catalogs has internal logic. If you are the kind of person who stayed through the Heartbreakers set at any festival you attended in the last three decades, you are also the kind of person who already knows every word to “Brass in Pocket.” One night. One room. Same ticket. And if you need one more reason: Everett has proven this summer that it can host legacy classic rock acts done right — Canned Heat and Big Brother showed that in May.
The Logistics
Where: Kings Hall at APEX Art and Culture Center, 1611 Everett Ave, Everett, WA 98201.
When: Saturday June 27, 2026. Show time 8:00 PM.
Tickets: From $41 at Ticketmaster (event 0F00647F843C4809). Also available via SeatGeek. Purchase in advance — tribute shows at Kings Hall have sold ahead of date.
Frequently Asked Questions
What time does Petty Thief start at Kings Hall APEX Everett?
Show time is 8:00 PM on Saturday June 27, 2026. Pretenders UK opens the night before Petty Thief headlines. Kings Hall at APEX Art and Culture Center is at 1611 Everett Ave, Everett, WA 98201. Tickets from $41 via Ticketmaster event 0F00647F843C4809.
Who is opening for Petty Thief at APEX Everett on June 27?
Pretenders UK opens the show — a Seattle-based four-piece dedicated to the early 1980s Pretenders catalog, including “Brass in Pocket,” “Back on the Chain Gang,” “Talk of the Town,” and “Middle of the Road.” This is not a warm-up act; they are the second reason to buy a ticket.
Who is Petty Thief and are they from Seattle?
Petty Thief is Seattle’s tribute to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Founded in 2007 by Andy Volmer, the current five-piece lineup has been together since 2017. Volmer describes their approach as “a true live rock and roll band, not a novelty act.” They are the Pacific Northwest’s longest-running Tom Petty tribute.
How much are tickets for Petty Thief at APEX Everett?
Tickets start from $41 via Ticketmaster (event 0F00647F843C4809) and SeatGeek. For a two-band tribute night in a mid-size room, that is competitive pricing — single-act cover shows at seated venues in the greater Seattle area typically run $60–$90.
What songs will Petty Thief play at APEX Everett?
Petty Thief plays the full Heartbreakers catalog — expect “American Girl,” “Free Fallin’,” “I Won’t Back Down,” “The Waiting,” “Breakdown,” “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” “Learning to Fly,” and more. They play the hits and the catalog, not a three-song medley.
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