Your Villain My Hero @ Cubby Bear 11/14/9

Your Villain My Hero is a Top-40 cover band. If that sounds nothing like what this blog usually reviews, you're right. Nevertheless, YVMH is impressive both for transforming pop hits into rock-based guitar-bass-drum (and yes, a fair helping of digi-effects) and for doing it as live performance. Fronted by a talented duo of male rapper/female singer who alternate frontperson roles based on source material, YVMH expertly weaves through a selection of radio-friendly party-starters from the last decade. My friend Mike, who knows my sensibilities tend heavily towards indie rock,  at one point said I looked like a deer caught in headlights, confused and generally afraid at what I was witnessing. Which wasn't necessarily true. Sure, pop-40 music is not at all my preferred aesthetic, but even I had to give a heaping handful of credit to YVMH for generally mastering the genre in such an unusual format. I wasn't transfixed with confusion, but moreso admiration. And the frat-tastic crowd that is Wrigleyville and the Cubby Bear was more than lapping it up. Giving a grade to a cover band isn't like giving a grade to an original act, especially a top-40 cover band, so let's give YVMH an A for effort, execution, and general fun.