Everyone who listens to Coroner knows by now that they are commencing their Dissonance over the West Tour in February, which will be the first time they’ve done this since the ’90s. I have been fortunate enough to live on the east coast and have seen them twice in the last few years, once in Philadelphia and once in Baltimore. I have no idea when they will be doing the east coast leg of this tour, so Hubs and I have made the decision to head out west to catch three shows — the Whisky-a-GoGo in West Hollywood and The Glass House in Pomona, both in the Los Angeles area, where I lived, geez, over twenty years ago.
In fact, I used to live on a little street (Sal Mineo was stabbed and killed just down the street a bit) right off of Sunset, just a few blocks from the Whisky and the Rainbow Bar and Grill; the Tail o’ the Pup also walkable in the other direction (excited about dem dawgs!). While there, I will show Hubs my old haunts around Venice Beach, Santa Monica, up the 101 to Topanga Canyon, and over the hill to The Valley and North Hollywood, where I lived briefly. Then down around Pasadena to see our friend, F/X Master, Mark Shostrom. (Just the nicest guy.)
After that, it’s up to San Jose to catch them at The Ritz. (Hoping to stop at the Sequoia National Park on the way.) Happily, we have two friends there as well, one of whom I’ve not met in person and the other I haven’t seen in about fifteen years or so. After that, we’ll head over to Guerneville to see even more friends. This is a trip we wanted to take anyway, to make these little visits. The whole thing is very exciting. Whenever they get around to touring the east coast again, we’ll probably do the same thing — travel a bit to see three or so shows.
I am super excited for this. It’ll be my first time hearing my lyrics live! If you told thirteen-year-old me that I would be writing Coroner lyrics and hearing those songs, both recorded and live…all of that…I’d have said you were absolutely nuts. But then, had you told me I’d be writing their biography, I’d have responded the same. Tip: If you want to do something, kids…just ask. You might get lucky like me and they say, “Yes.”
(If you’re going to be at one of these three California shows, let me know and hopefully we can say hello!)
This is the big travel-trip for 2026. Other trips include probably going to Providence, RI to attend the NecronomiCon with some good friends from Pittsburgh. Before that, though — Pittsburgh! To see family and more good friends, and to attend what is likely to be the final Living Dead Weekend held at the Monroeville Mall before those sacks of shit tear it down. I don’t mind saying, I’m just heartbroken we’re losing this iconic Romero landmark. Nothing is sacred.
With all the running around, the cats will be unamused.
Writing-wise, I’ve written about 15,000 words in the past 2.5 weeks. Not a whole lot more to say about that, except that I’m happy with the progress — about 1,000-2,500 words a day (occasional days off to, you know, do life stuff), bringing the total to almost 53,000 words (which is the equivalent of half a novel, and I’m only on the ’86 Celtic Frost/Voivod/Running Wild US tour Marky and Tommy roadied on — guys, this is going to be a long-ass book) In addition to my daily writing, I am also still (and will be for what seems like the rest of my life) processing video interviews into timestamped notes. It’s the foundation of everything, and if I don’t keep it up, I will eventually find myself at a standstill with the writing, and that can’t happen.
I know it’s been a while since my last blog post, but really, the interview processing and the writing take up so much time. Sometimes, it just takes a few hours to hit my daily goals, but sometimes there’s so much going back and forth, searching for information in my notes, it can get up to six, eight hours. Today, as you can tell, what a short day, so…here I am…
Lee Harper Oswald 