Ask Valerie Plish what kind of tunes she likes, and she'll come back with:

"You can't go wrong with '80s music. That's what I always say."

And that's what she sings, too. Val's vocals help drive Decadence, a South Hills-based band that's been making a name for itself this summer by drumming up nostalgia for two decades ago with dead-on renditions of the era's hits.

"The biggest compliment we can get is when someone comes up to us and says, 'You really took us back,'" says Val, a West Mifflin native who returned to the Pittsburgh area after stints as singer and/or dancers in places like Vegas, Branson (at Canonsburg native Bobby Vinton's Blue Velvet Theater) and even as part of the circus.

The four guys who share the stage with her are glad she's back.

"As soon as we found her," guitarist Mark Willson says, "we knew we were onto something."

The band specializes in music made for the shakin' it.

"A lot of people are touching on '80s stuff, and it's going over really well," Mark says. "But no one's doing the dance stuff."

Decadence's repertoire is just that: everything from Madonna in her "Lucky Star" days to the catchy riffs of the Bangles' "Walk Like An Egyptian."

Val's singing, of course, is the essential ingredient to pulling off those types of tunes. But she'll point out that everyone in the band sings, which certainly helps their goal of coming as close as possible to the sound of the hits.

To that effect, she's impressed with the talents of musicians. Along with Mark are Steve Leach on bass, Jay Nazum on drums and Michael Lesko, who came up with the concept for the band, on keyboards. All are longtime veterans of the music scene.

For example, Mark, who lives in Upper St. Clair, had plenty of experience playing '80s music back there in the '80s, as a member of Cooper and Ross (as in Jimmie Ross of the Jaggerz and Skyliners). "It's very close to that," Mark says. "We're actually doing about 10 songs that band did."

By the way, he's also founder of AcoustiCafe, a promotional organization for singer-songwriters (he's one of those, too). Decadence is a change of pace from that: "I really missed playing in front of a packed dance floor."

Decadence has been packin' 'em in since starting to gig around Memorial Day, apparently filling a niche for people who miss the days of Wang Chung and Men Without Hats. They'll be at Auggie's Roadhouse, just north of Washington, on Saturday, Sept. 17, and at the Rhythm House Cafe in Bridgeville on Sept. 30, among other dates.