Spend an ʻEvening with Jessica Albaʼ on Oct. 28

Every band wants to get noticed. “An Evening With Jessica Alba,” who will be playing an upcoming show at Shooter’s, really just wants to get noticed by “Fantastic Four” and “Sin City” actress Jessica Alba according to its band members.

“We’re in the midst of trying to market to her,” said Timothy Thrush, sophomore at UW-River Falls. “We’re going to write her a letter asking her, pleading with her, to come to a show and please don’t sue us. Hopefully it doesn’t end badly for us.” They don’t have a song prepared for her possible appearance at one of their shows, but Thrush said they “probably should.”

“Whatever’s on the setlist next, we’ll just dedicate it to her,” Thrush said.

“The crowd is great. It’s my favorite place to play,” Thrush said of Shooter’s in River Falls where his band will be playing Friday, Oct. 28. “When people are throwing back drinks, they’re having a good time, the band’s having a good time.” The band consists of Thrush on drums, guitarist Kyle Kenneth, a UWRF alumnus, keyboardist Eric Kreighton, Justin Rankin on bass guitar, and Raun Brostrom as lead singer.

“An Evening With Jessica Alba” was formed in January.

“We tend to play three or four hour sets,” said Thrush. “That’s 50 or 60 songs.”

Although the band is recently formed, they’ve already played a handful of shows including two previous shows in River Falls and assorted private parties.

The band members wanted to make sure that there was enough variety in their incredibly long sets so they made sure to avoid repeating covers from different artists, except for Michael Jackson. “Can’t get enough Michael,” Thrush said.

While the band’s setlist runs the gamut of 80s rock and pop, Thrush said the most fun song for him to play is Van Halen’s “Jump.”

“You listen to it and it’s a great song, but you can’t perform it without it coming across really cheesy,” Thrush said, “but it’s really fun to play. We act like idiots when we play it.”

The other side of the coin is the ultra-difficult drum part to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” according to Thrush. “[It] took me the longest to learn. If you play it right. A lot of people cheat and play it their own way,” Thrush said.

Thrush, 25, has been playing drums since he was 12, but said it goes back even further than that. Thrush said he started as a “small child just banging pots and pans and tambourines.” While he was making a ruckus on his second birthday, Thrush said his grandmother asked his parents why they didn’t just go ahead and buy him a drum set.

“Little did they know that that would come to be the case one day,” Thrush said.

Thrush is currently applying at Northwestern Mutual for an internship as a financial representative and also volunteers at Crossroads Church playing drums.

The big question with cover bands is whether they play carbon copies of their songs of choice or if they put their own spin on everything.

“We do stay really close, but at the same time we’re not 80s musicians so we do things a bit more to our style, but not in the sense that it’s an unplugged version,” Thrush said of the band’s approach to their covers.

The show at Shooter’s on Oct. 28 is being billed as a costume party and the bandmates encourage all attendees to dress up, but have something planned for those who might not want to rock out in costume.

“We are going to be having a Jessica Alba look alike contest,” Thrush said. “We want people to come up in their regular outfits and we’re just gonna put a wig on them.” The drummer didn’t allude to what the prize might be.

The show starts at 10 p.m. and runs until 1 a.m. at Shooter’s Pub on Main Street.

“If you’re looking for a good time and good dancing music, we’re the band to come see,” Thrush said.