The Handcuffs specialize in giving you something to look at as well as listen to.

The Chicago-based group brings its show to Springfield on Saturday as part of the American Music Show portion of Taste of Downtown.

Music starts at 5 p.m. today and 3 p.m. Saturday at Fifth and Washington. The Handcuffs play at 7 p.m. Saturday.

One of The Handcuffs' trademarks is a distinct visual image. The group centers on husband-and-wife team Chloe F. Orwell (vocals) and Brad Elvis (drummer). Orwell's presence is a fixation point until Elvis' tricks with drumsticks prove distracting.

To some observers, a visual reference point is The Who, another band that had plenty going on during performances in addition to the music.

"I'll take it," Orwell said of the comparison. "I love that people compare us to The Who. As a kid, my older siblings introduced me to bands like The Who, and I love (their singer) Roger Daltrey. I'm wondering now if I picked up some of that subconsciously."

Elvis, a veteran musician who started his career in Central Illinois, learned his trade the hard way.

"I was always a big Who fan," he recalls of his youth, "and of course, back then, we didn't have cable. So TV would burn into your brain.

"You'd go to movies a million times. Go to 'Woodstock' and 'Monterey Pop' and wait for the Who parts.

"I did poses from looking in a mirror. The stick balancing thing (where Elvis, midsong, balances a stick on his palm while maintaining the song's rhythm) I've been doing forever."

As for The Handcuffs' look, Orwell said, "I don't believe it's by design; it just sort of happened. We have a great musical chemistry.

"We never sat down and said, 'This is what you'll do.' We're very synchronized, but it's never planned.

"Most performers are hams anyway. If they come to see a show, you owe it to them to be entertaining. I like people, too. I want people to connect with what we do."

Orwell enjoys working with her husband, but the pair were friends before they became romantically involved. They've known each other for 10 years and been married for four.

"We're really great workmates," she said. "Even when we were in the going-out phase, we'd have those situations that you do, where we'd break up, then get back together. We always said no matter what happened, we had to keep working together. I love working with him."

The band's music is a struggle to describe. Orwell thinks Springfield promoter Sean Burns has come up with the best she's heard so far:

"A four-piece rock band that relies on an extensive knowledge of '60s British pop that gets filtered through a modern lens. Inhabiting the same pop world that has delivered the Ting Tings and Duffy to the top of the charts, The Handcuffs have pretty pop vocals layered over a rock/pop-hop backing track."

"I love that description of us," Orwell said. "I love that not because I think we sound like either of those acts, but it gives a feel for what we're like."

Fans of the television show "Gossip Girl" also have a feel for what the band sounds like. A pair of their songs were featured on the program last season, a rarity for an independent group.

"TV is kind of the new radio," Orwell said. "If you want to find the pulse of the teens, a lot of the music being used it those shows is being picked by people who listen to literally hundreds of new songs every week, and they're passionate about what they like.

"It's kind of like if you listen rather than pay attention to the stupidity of the show. But I don't want to rip MTV too much. They've been good to us."

WHAT: Taste of Springfield.

WHEN: Today and Saturday.

WHERE: Downtown Springfield.

SCHEDULE:

Today: 5 p.m., The Honeybees; 6:30 p.m., Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun; 8 p.m., Dave Alvin and The Guilty Women; 10 p.m., The Damwell Betters.

Saturday: 3 p.m., The Gordons/Tom Irwin; 5:30 p.m., The Cynics; 7 p.m., The Handcuffs; 8:30 p.m., Robbie Fulks; 10 p.m., Hillbilly Casino.

timcain@herald-review.com|421-6908