The members of The Lonely H may still be in their teens, but don't let their youth fool you -- these guys are already rock 'n' roll veterans.

The Port Angeles, Wash.-based quartet -- whose members finished high school last spring -- has been a staple of the Seattle club scene for years, recorded two albums, 2006's "Kick Upstairs" and 2007's "Hair," and is wrapping up its second U.S. tour with a swing through Montana next week.

That youthful moxie has helped the band, which has been together since middle school, get noticed with writeups in SPIN magazine, CMJ, the New York Post and MSNBC.

"It was never my intention to be in a rock band," singer and keyboardist Mark Fredson said in a recent phone interview from the band's tour bus. "It kind of fell in my lap, and I was like, 'This is so much better than basketball.' We were getting some fans and it was really fun. It was nice to have that outlet. It was pretty cool."

Don't expect their sound to mirror their age either. Fredson and his bandmates -- Eric Whitman on guitar, Johnny Whitman on bass and Ben Eyestone on drums -- owe more to Thin Lizzy and Deep Purple than Fall Out Boy or Good Charlotte.

All four members have extensive vinyl collections, and they cull from influences like the straight-ahead rock of Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty to the prog-rock of Yes. Fredson lists the Beatles as his biggest influence.

"To me that's the best music ever made," he said.

They're also not products of their environment. Though Fredson said they all had their Nirvana phase, the Seattle bands of the 90s aren't an influence the band would admit to.

On "Hair" the band displays an arena-ready sound, combining hard rock anthems featuring Eric Whitman's searing riffs and a heavy dose of power ballads featuring Fredson's soaring vocals and piano.

Fredson said that when crowds see a bunch of young guys take the stage in their 1970s-inspired clothes, they expect a novelty act.

But they quickly figure out these guys are serious.

"People say, 'This is all just a shtick,' and then you go in there and rock their asses off," he said. "It sounds like classic rock because that's what we listened to."

The summer after graduating high school, the band had an opportunity to take its act on the road.

Though they were still teenagers, Fredson said, the idea of a national tour on their own was not initimidating.

"We didn't think about the daunting aspect," Fredson said. "We were overwhelmed with excitement. I really wasn't that nervous. I felt pretty comfortable with our capability to go out and do it.

"We did it."

After returning from the road, the band members enrolled at the University of Washington for one semester.

"We learned a little bit and then we got the opportunity to go on the road again," Fredson said. "How could we pass up this opportunity to do what we love."

The band, which has played 46 shows in 22 states since hitting the road Feb. 1, plays at Jester's in Helena Wednesday, April 9, sandwiched between shows in Bozeman and Missoula before heading home.

Fredson said the road hasn't changed the band's sound, but it has impacted their lyrics.

"Being on the road, it's a whole different lifestyle, an exciting lifestyle," he said. "I'm writing about the excitement."

The band has been busy putting down new music on paper while they've been on the road, with new material making up about half of their shows.

From the people the band has talked to, the new music has gotten the best response, and Fredson is looking forward to getting back into the studio.

"We have a lot of songs and a lot of stuff to sift through for this new one," he said.