The schedule has been released and last tickets are being sold for Debauch-A-Reno 2023, coinciding with 30 years of Sticker Guy and 20 years of Slovenly Recordings.
Music and sticker entrepreneur Peter Menchetti has been scoping out music in West Africa in recent weeks, while ramping up promotion for the upcoming June 16th to 18th concerts at Cypress and the Wingfield Amphitheater, before his return to the Biggest Little City.
There will also be an added July 14th component at Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City.
Menchetti has organized his trademark We’re Loud Fest around the world now, and Debauch-A-Reno is part of that but just for here, every five years.
“It's easier to organize things in your hometown than it is to in say, Istanbul or Saigon, Vietnam, or the coast of Oaxaca, Mexico, which we've done all of those,” Menchetti explained. “Here in Reno we've got a lot friends. Everybody's coming out to help us out, which is really awesome.”
Menchetti is thrilled to include local bands The Juvinals, Clarko and Pussy Velour in the lineup for the opening party at Cypress which will go until four a.m.
“Musically, we're mostly dealing with rock and roll, punk, garage rock, there's some post-punk. You know, Spitting Image is going to play [Sunday June 18th]. We’ve got a new band from Los Angeles called Tube Alloys. They're really cool. I saw them a couple months ago. I just choose bands that I like and people that I like to work with. They have to be good to work with.” Tickets can be found here: https://slovenly.eventsmart.com/events/debauchareno-2023-tickets/
It’s a way to reinvigorate what used to be a thriving local underground scene.
“What my life revolves around is music and concerts and parties, rock and roll parties, punk rock parties,” Menchetti said. “It’s also very much how Sticker Guy got its start. We rented a house with a basement on Ryland Street on the corner of Ryland and Wheeler, I guess you'd call it the original Ryland Street basement. There were other Ryland Street houses since then, which I think are gone now, unfortunately. We were having bands play from all over the world. We had, I don't know, a couple shows a week down in the basement. And, a lot of these bands became sticker customers. Some of them I ended up making records for as well. So it all ties together pretty nicely.”
Menchetti was 19 when he started Sticker Guy, dreaming up the sticker printing company concept while working at a carwash and starting it while still going to school at UNR and living at his mom’s house.
“I always really liked it when band had stickers. So I just looked into how to make them then I was involved in the music scene, so I started offering them to all the bands that I was meeting and it just went from there,” he said.
As it grew organically, he says Sticker Guy was able to remain local with production at a warehouse in Sparks and several long time employees. He says success also came with it being the first sticker company selling through the internet.
How does he do it all now, keeping the sticker company going, running a recording company and traveling the world to organize festivals and connect with musicians?
“I’m overworked and I complain about it a lot, but I realize while I'm complaining that it's all of my own choice,” he said.