Dry spell

Two things to know up top about the Reno rock band Tresed: 1. The band name, in case you’re bad at anagrams or haven’t bothered to hold it up to a mirror, is the word “desert” backwards. 2. The band members are all still students at Damonte Ranch High School. But this isn’t one of those summer camp bands organized by parents trying to pass on their own teenage dreams to a younger generation. There’s no Svengali behind the band, just four young dudes out to rock. Their ramshackle rehearsal space—which is at somebody’s mom’s house, of course—doesn’t have a P.A., so the guitarists practice singing into a mic that isn’t connected to anything, and the bass player plays out of a practice amp that’s woefully inadequate.

“We’re working on that,” said Jake Lorgé, one of the band’s two guitarist-vocalists, about the lack of a P.A.

They live out in a particular kind of a desert, a suburban wasteland, surrounded by half-built houses, and row after row of identical streets, and nothing of note in walking distance but a park or two. But out there, they crank up reverbed-out Fender combo amps with fuzz and chorus pedals, and play riffs that come straight from the best of ’90s songbooks, sounding a bit like a combination of Nirvana, Sonic Youth and early Butthole Surfers.

The band has covered the Nirvana song “Stay Away” at shows, and drummer Pablo Schultz has been known to throw in Dave Grohl fills in the band’s originals tunes, which have heavier-than-thou titles like “Deep Sea Space” and “The Bog” and monster riffs to match. Schultz hits hard and loud and is fun to watch.

Matt L’Etoile, the band’s other guitarist-vocalist, throws in some spicy wah-wah solos that add touches of ’70s psych-rock.

Bass player Gabe Horan, who plays on a borrowed practice amp, is the newest addition to the lineup, and he admits he doesn’t come from a rock background—he’s more of a country guy—but he connects to the music.

“I like the energy of it, and how much we get into it,” he said. “The energy is pretty intense, and I like that.”

Schultz discovered bands like Nirvana by raiding his dad’s music collection. “My dad just played it all the time,” he said. “He also played, like, Bad Brains and Led Zeppelin.”

“The music that’s out today just doesn’t do it for me,” said L’Etoile.

The ’90s influence continues the every-other-decade pattern of cultural influence. (The 1970s had a ’50s revival, in the ’80s, everyone talked about the ’60s, and in the ’90 one of the most popular TV shows was called That ’70s Show.)

And although they play music that comes from a long tradition of teenage angst and ennui, the band members seem well balanced and mentally healthy. But they acknowledge a bit of rebellion in their music.

“We touch on it occasionally, but we’re not like generation X or anything,” said Lorgé.