Velcro Lewis, of the Chicago-based R&B/rock band The Velcro Lewis Group, is legally blind but his view into society’s core is crystal clear. He knows what people want to see, hear and feel; he knows how to turn them on.
“Concertgoers can expect dancing, shouting, paying for our drinks and making out after our shows,” said Lewis. “I’ll bang cowbells together, you’ll see a dude scrubbin’ on a washboard while singing bass . . . you know, new things. We pride ourselves on the party we bring with us. If in your life you can’t find a reason to dance and drink and feel good about yourself, come see us, we’ll change that.”
The bands off-kilter ideas of a good time have been embraced by Chicago’s hip scene. Between those looking for a group who fits the “so different it’s cool” mold, and those who appreciate a band that only knows how to play with intensity, The Velcro Lewis Group has found a niche in the city.
“The kids that come to shows are less and less picky than they were a decade ago,” explained Lewis. “Sure, you still have some skinny kids in the back crossing their arms and trying to look cool, but a lot of those dudes have all grown those funny beards and taken to “being burly” as some kind of credo, which works for us since we’re all naturally tremendous. So it’s safe to say that some of these music fans and freaks out here are perfect company for us.”
The band’s tremendousness functions best when the entire group is together as they work with one another to gain energy and inspiration. Consequently, when it came time to record their 2010 album, White Magick Summer, they knew that it was imperative to bring this group dynamic into the studio with them.
“The record took three years to complete,” Lewis said. “We would go into the studio and record whatever songs we had written at the time and after picking ten songs we were happy with, we stopped . . . We like to record all in one room, on top of each other and as live as possible. Without visual contact or the live energy in the room I think we’d feel out of place . . . Take that away and we’re like pigeons flying into plate glass windows.”
Lewis is enthusiastic about the work the band has done for their forthcoming album. He feels the pioneering sounds of the new album will take ears to places they’ve never been before.
“We have written an album’s worth of material in the past year,” said Lewis. “Some of the new songs are weird funkadelic jams, others are rambling chooglers and others are too far out there to easily describe – like we invented a music machine that could open the sky and rain down belts of sounds no one has ever heard before. You wouldn’t need a special helmet to play in the eye of this storm.”
— Michael Gallagher