During this year’s Upstream Music Fest, I made a good decision (for a change). I’d been hearing and reading positive things about Tres Leches from trustworthy sources, but I’d never seen them perform. As I entered Central Saloon, the Seattle trio was in full-on infectious spasm mode, making ye olde rock and roll sound like it had been guzzling from the fountain of youth. Former Stranger music editor and Tacocat frontwoman Emily Nokes was posted up in the front row, a solid endorsement in itself. High five to trustworthy sources—and to the band: Alaia D’Alessandro, Ulises Mariscal, and Zander Yates.
With wild songs that gleefully twist rock conventions while maintaining hooks amid the encroaching chaos, Tres Leches recall Pixies’ 1987 debut EP, Come On Pilgrim, when they still radiated danger, before their descent into normcore alt-rock-hood. As it happens, Tres Leches—who call their music “dark basement”—had never heard that record, but after I mentioned it in my Slog review of their Upstream set, they now appreciate it.
