"Death Trip" East Coast Book Tour

Touring a book is a lot like touring a punk band—joyous, nerve-wracking, and lonely. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. If you're on the East Coast this February, come out and say "Hi!"

My very first out-of-town show was not an auspicious one.

It was early 1988—I had just turned 17—and too early one Sunday morning my high school band, the Vile Cherubs, piled into our guitarist’s mom’s Chevy station wagon for the roughly 200-mile drive to Norfolk, VA.

The whole idea was ludicrous. None of us really understood how long it really took to drive 200 miles, or that the show would take place in the back of a dodgy hair salon, or that about 50 miles north of Norfolk something under the hood of the Chevy would explode with a muffled thud, cutting our speed to roughly 40 mph.

And yet 37 years later, my dim memories of that afternoon are chiseled into my memory. The horrifying bathroom behind the stage, the Dumpster stuffed full of discarded hair-care products (and, bizarrely, old porn magazines). Literally everything about the scene seemed sketchy and wrong.

But among the more established bands that day (Swiz, Ignition, Honor Role), something about our music—a weird take on ‘60s garage filtered through ‘80s hardcore—seemed to resonate. I felt a new kind of thrill, the knowing that I could walk into a room full of strangers and maybe—just maybe—share some sound or sensation they hadn’t experienced before. That I was finally part of the conversation.

17 is the perfect age for quixotic, doomed gestures. And yet here I am again on the cusp of 54, about to do it all over again.

Here’s the thing about book tours: They don’t make much sense, not for a fledging author such as myself. Death Trip is a very handmade proposition, published by a tiny micro press here in Portland. There’s no PR budget, no ads, no nothing. Touring it is costly, grueling, and oftentimes pretty lonely.

But I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Like that long-ago show in the hair salon, standing in a room full of curious, eager—and yes, often skeptical—strangers may just be one of the most thrilling things I’ve ever done. There’s something about sharing something vulnerable and heartfelt that seems to invite others to do the same. It’s a kind of permission, and the book events that stick in my memory are the ones that turn into one giant conversation with the entire room.

So if you’re on the East Coast, I’d be thrilled—no exaggeration!—to see you at one of my book events. Let’s huddle up and shake off the chill together, shall we?

Love always,

Seth

“Death Trip” East Coast Tour Dates

• Wednesday, Feb. 5, 7pm at People’s Book, 7014-A Westmoreland Ave, Takoma Park, MD

• Saturday, Feb. 8, 6pm at Atomic Books, 3620 Falls Rd, Baltimore, MD

• Sunday, Feb. 9, 5pm at MAAS Building, 1325 N Randolph St, Philadelphia, PA

• Monday, Feb. 10, 7pm at Sherry Beth Sacks, 145 Dunnell Rd, Maplewood, NJ

• Tuesday, Feb. 11, 7pm at Psychedelic Assembly, 222 E. 46th St, NYC, NY

• Wednesday, Feb. 12, 7pm at The Word Is Change, 368 Tompkins Ave, Brooklyn, NY

• Saturday, Feb. 22, 8pm at Lost Origins Gallery, 3110 Mt. Pleasant St, Washington, D.C.