Frisco Flashback

Some of them remember 1984 -- but only vaguely. And only some of them.

"We range from 24 to mid-30s," drummer Justin Gabossi says of the six musicians who make up Members Only. The Springfield, Mo., group defines itself as an "'80s tribute band," Gabossi says, because each performance starts with "musicianship" and goes beyond it to "full '80s get-ups" designed for each member, individual '80s personas and a full production crew.

"It's professional from the first call all the way to set up, performance and breakdown," he says.

Members Only will headline tonight's Frisco Festival in celebration of 30 years for the Main Street Rogers event.

"Frisco Festival is probably the longest running downtown event in this area," Dana Mather, Main Street Rogers director, told The Rogers Morning News. "Other festivals have come and gone, but this event gets bigger every year."

Jenny Harmon, the Main Street Rogers director who founded the festival, estimates about 1,500 people attended the first year. Of course, only about 17,000 people lived in Rogers at the time. It was also the year Apple unveiled the Mac, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were introduced to comic book fans, and the first Video Music Awards saw Cyndi Lauper win "Best Female Video" for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Michael Jackson take home a pile of awards for "Thriller."

It wasn't until much, MUCH later -- 2008, to be exact -- that vocalist Brent Thornton approached his high school friend Gabossi with the idea of starting a band.

"He was inspired by Journey," Gabossi says. "I remember him saying, 'I really want to cover some of these great songs.'"

What started as six "down-to-earth, hard-working guys" playing in and around Springfield -- and working days in a bank, as a music teacher, as a personal trainer and as musicians in Branson -- has become "like a family," Gabossi says, and the band has opened for names as legendary as Def Leppard, Poison, Pat Benatar and, most recently, Third Eye Blind.

"Honestly, it took the first four years building, but the momentum has really hit in the last two and a half years," Gabossi says. "We really want to continue to take this project and push it beyond regional.

"There's a lot of writing that takes place within the band as well," he adds, "and I think more energy will be put toward that, and over time, we'll start to release some original music. We want to keep bringing new stuff to the table to keep people on their toes."

The question, Gabossi admits, is whether that music will have an '80s flavor.

"As eclectic as the guys are in the group, I think we'll have to kind of find our way. Some of what we've written has sort of stayed in the '80s hair band rock/pop vein. But some of the songwriting is quite different. We'll see what rises to the top.

"But right now, that remains an afterthought to what we're doing because there's so much success with the tribute project.

"Every new town, every new audience, every show is so exciting," Gabossi adds. "This is a really cool thing we get to do, whether we're playing original music or cover tunes. People schedule their time or their evening or their job or their babysitter to come out and see us perform and run around the stage and have fun. Yeah, some of the weekends are long and there's a lot of work, preshow and post show, but that's really what drives us.

"That's what motivates us. It really is."