1980s tribute band The Reagan Years is coming to The Community Arts center March 25 to perform favorites of the decade.

The diverse band, which formed in 1996, performs 80s pop, rock, new wave and heavy metal.

The group, based out of the DC, Maryland, Virginia area, was originally founded by Sy Seyler, drummer, and Karen Ellison, keyboardist.

“The concept was to have multi-genre 80s songs by one band throughout the night. It was a novel idea at the time, because there was really no tribute to a decade at the time,” Sy Seyler said. “There were a few bands but it was the Beatlemania, Tribute to The Beatles. Back in Black, the AC/DC tribute; Sticky Fingers, the Rolling Stones tribute; Kiss Army. But there was no tribute concept to a decade,” he added.

“So we kind of pioneered this whole thing. And about the same time, there was just a lot of angst in music that was charting — grunge was prolific at the time. So real dark, dark chords, the songs themselves weren’t perky and happy and upbeat,” Seyler said. “We were like, we need some happy music. So, we decided that the 80s happy music would be accepted. And maybe people would look forward to that. Just fun music,” he added.

The group gears their setlist towards the fans and what they like to hear.

“It brings us joy to see them having so much fun. Some of the songs that you see, a core setlist, is ‘Living on a Prayer’ by Bon Jovi, ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ by Def Leppard, ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’ by Pat Benatar, Whitney Houston song ‘How Will I Know,” Seyler said.

“We kind of fleshed it out, and then created what we thought would be like a core song list of bands that you had to have in that decade. We started to create this concept. We looked around, and it was the early days of the internet. After doing searches, the only other people that were doing this we could find was a band in Las Vegas, called The Love Shack. And then there was a band out of Miami called The Breakfast Club. And then there was a band in Australia called Neon Neon. So nobody was doing it on the East Coast per se. So that’s why we call ourselves the East Coast, original 80s tribute band,” Seyler said.

The group performs at weddings, receptions, corporate galas, festivals, clubs and more.

“Each year it seems like we are lucky enough to get some dates that are way out of our area. We generally play Thursday through Sunday, somewhere anywhere within three, four hours of our home base,” Seyler said.

The band is made up of seven members: Glenn Riley; Jody Lewis, Scott Benford, Raychel Harvey-Jones, Anthony Nuccio, Seyler and Ellison.

“Our current singer, Anthony Nuccio, was the lead male character in the traveling version of the Broadway musical Rock of Ages. That was a 10th anniversary tour of America. And he was the lead male character and voice in that,” Seyler said.

For updates on the band, follow The Reagan Years on facebook at www.facebook.com/TheReaganYearsBand or their website at www.thereaganyears.com.

They can also be found on instagram at @TheReaganYearsBand.