Mr. Rogers Neighbor: Noisy Neighborhood

My son’s ear-pummeling dark metal band has changed its name from Blood Omen, which was a bit too morbid and obvious for them, to Mr. Rogers Neighbor, which is sufficiently droll. More than a year after their public debut, I still can’t get over how good they are, playing extremely tight and pricise originals with the power to melt faces.

Chris Olsen, who plays bass, is almost 18, a super kid and senior honor student in high school who happens to beat the hell out of his instrument with like-minded lads for fun and sometimes even profit. They practice religiously twice a week at their own rehearsal space and are impressively serious and adult about it all.

They play out at least monthly at the no-kidding adult rock clubs of Northeast Ohio and are tonight opening for Strapping Young Lad at Cleveland’s legendary Peabody’s Down Under, although I am displeased to find them not listed on the bill. BAD Peabody’s.

Nonetheless, if you are in the area and enjoy having your viscera rearranged sonically, you could do worse than to check in on my son and his compatriots tonight. I can’t go because it’s a school night and stuff, but I saw them in the same setting last month and was mightily proud, strutting out of the joint telling everyone who would listen that was my son up there.