The Last Vegas wants to melt your face. The spirit of rock ‘n roll is its blowtorch. Coming out of Chicago, the band has developed a still-growing reputation as a source of strutting, old school rock. It hit its breakthrough with “Whatever Gets You Off,” an album produced in part by Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx. Now, The Last Vegas are looking to capitalize by taking its music to the streets.

Vocalist Chad Cherry spent a few moments to sing the praises of good old fashioned visceral experience.

The Second Supper: What is your musical background, and how did the band form?

Chad Cherry: We started as the five piece about four years ago. I was in a band out of the Detroit/Grand Rapids area with our current bass player called the Nasties. I was dating a girl who was a model, and she had to move [to Chicago] for her work, so I moved down from Michigan and met the boys in the Vegas. There weren’t a lot of people in Chicago who had our style of rock ‘n roll, so we all got together and started writing music.

We got signed to an independent label out of Pittsburgh and immediately started putting out records and touring the U.S. and Europe. It hasn’t stopped since we got on the bus!

SS: What’s your take on the prevailing styles of Chicago?

CC: We listen to tons of different kinds of music, but we’re more of a bare bones, brutal appreciation of real rock and roll, in the vein of the big arena rock bands. We noticed that the stuff going around here was more shoegazer stuff. We’re more of a gang, like the Warriors!

SS: How has your style changed since the beginning?

CC: I’d say that we’re a band that’s proud of what we do but never satisfied. We’re ironing out our act a little more as far as songwriting. The old style was raw and gritty; now it’s a little craftier, with more hooks, making it groovier. It’s something that you can remember more than a bashing, bombastic sensation. But for the most part, our attitude comes through in everything we do.

SS: Are you more into working on albums or playing live?

CC: We’re absolutely a live band. That’s the most realistic approach to doing our kind of thing, to travel, hit people’s towns, and experience what they’re going through. That’s where we shine the most. You should make everything sound amazing in a studio. That’s easy. If you have your sights on what you want to do, you can pull the trigger unless you have no idea what you’re doing. But our flavor is live, and our fans come to see us because we put on an insane show that I don’t think a lot of people are doing anymore.

SS: Do you have any tricks in performing live?

CC: We shine through in being ourselves and not giving a shit what people think of us. The unpredictability of it is something that people look at as a spectacle and get off on.

SS: But it’s not highly produced, no upside down drum solos. Is the show a little more punk in the execution?

CC: That’s exactly what it is. We have the elements of a huge arena band, sound and looks wise, but we grew up on classic rock, the Ramones, and Black Flag, and that’s something we still hold dear.

SS: One of the producers on your new album was Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx. How did that come about, and what was your reaction to working with him?

CC: To have some guy, who you’ve grown up on his music, come in and work with you in the studio with zero attitude and ego is a very humbling experience. Not a whole lot of bands can have their mentors come in and work with them on songs and become friends afterwards. Nikki was a great dude; he’s all about the music.

SS: Looking back on the fluctuating styles of popular music, the arena rock that influences your band was huge in the 80s before the non-image music of the 90s obscured it. With the fading of centrally distributed music, is popularity no longer relevant?

CC: It feels like everything musically has been done, pushed over a cliff, and back up again. I don’t know what music is going to change what’s going on. I’d love to see it, but it’s irrelevant to me. We’re not trying to fit into any styles. People can compare us to the 80s, but we were also the kids buying In Utero. If it’s good and gets stuck in your head, we were listening to it. Now, we’re playing the music that’s in our souls and our blood, not anything that we sit down and plan.

SS: With everyone able to follow their own styles, can the new big things have the same impact as the old big things?

CC: Back in the day, there used to be music scenes. All these guys would go and see bands that came into town. Now, there isn’t a scene at all. Everyone who wants to make it is thinking that they’re the next biggest things, and they’re all separated. People will go to a rock show just to be seen by somebody, to say that they saw the band before they sucked. No one is on the level, of like, we’re gonna go out, party, and probably get drunk and laid.

SS: There’s too much readily available music. When you don’t have the easy access, when you go, you go for it.

CC: Exactly. A lot of it is people staying home and watching it on YouTube. You can get excited about watching something on a TV or computer, but nothing beats the real experience. I’ve made contact with people throughout the world by going out and playing rock ‘n roll. There’s a whole lot of fun to be had out there.

The Last Vegas will play the Warehouse on November 5th and 19th.