Dwarves

Dwarves Live in Austin

Ellis Jones

I don’t like shooting photos or video at shows. Why? Cause I don’t like going to shows. Why? Cause shows are filled with people, and I can count on one hand with two fingers the number of people I like to drink beer and listen to music with. However, Blag of the Dwarves threw me on the list and I thought id give it a try. I dusted off the old mid 2000s Nikon Dslr and grabbed my video camera and set out to cover Noise Fest 2026 at the Far Out Lounge in Austin.

I did my usual bike ride around Lady Bird lake, then hopped in an uber. I went to the ticket lady and told her I was on the list she told me I wasn’t, she looked at my gear and after the slightest hesitation she said “but, I believe you” and gave me a wrist band. As soon as I sat down to get my gear together I realized I had left the house in sunglasses and forgot my prescription glasses at home. The problem, you ask? Well this show starts at five and ends at midnight. So I knew that id be shooting this thing at night with sunglasses on.

but then just as I had realized this conundrum I saw a unicorn of sorts. Something I had always wondered about… do dwarves, actual “little people” do they know about the dwarves band? How do they feel about the dwarves? Do they like them? do they hate? them do they show up in droves to party and rock out or do they attend dwarves shows with torches and pitchforks to protest the dwarves band?

I pondered this for years. Yet still if I had four quarters I couldn’t call it. But on this fine Friday in central Texas I spotted a dwarf at a dwarves show.

i took photos of all the opening bands that maybe youll see one day. but i filmed the dwarves whole set. whick means i dont have any photos of them to post. after reviewing the footage blag and i agreed that the lighting and sound were shit so you arent going to see the 35 minute face melting set that played. fortunately for you blood thirsty dwarves fans, we filmed a little post show chat

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Dwarves…the last bastion of uncomplicated, hedonistic release.

Ellis Jones

I sat down with Blag Dahlia the frontman of the legendary punk band The Dwarves. (King Khan kept trying to crash the Zoom call in real-time. The interview online is not a clean, historical retrospective, but as a living, breathing, slightly chaotic extension of the very rock ‘n’ roll madness we ended up discussing.) We had a casual, natural chat between old music peers, highlighting everything from early underground history to raw music industry economics.

Blag and I discussed how The Dwarves originally began as a 60s garage punk band in Illinois (originally under the name Suburban Nightmare) before transitioning into their notorious fast, intense 90s hardcore sound with records like Blood Guts and Pussy. We swapped thoughts on how modern garage rock bands and artists like Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees drew heavily from that early raw 60s/80s Dwarves template.

Blag challenged the idea that they were purely trying to be a shock-rock band. He explains that most artists simply self-censor their thoughts, families, or neighbors, whereas he let his unfiltered mind run onto the record. I made comparisons to classic outliers like GG Allin, Blowfly, and The Dead Boys.

“The Dwarves were never a calculated “shock rock” act. The Dwarves simply took the lid off humanity and let it run wild on tape. It’s not about being provocative for a reaction; it’s about the terrifying honesty of absolute zero filter. In a corporate world dominated by curated PR statements and algorithmic safety, pure, unmediated thought becomes a volatile substance.”

We talked about the commercial peaks and valleys of punk, including The Dwarves’ time on Sub Pop Records and the financial realities of licensing. Blag mentioned how music licensing money has dried up over the decades—contrasting a $10,000 payday they split with their label back when Jim Carrey sang along to their track in Me, Myself & Irene. to the small triple-digit flat fees standard today.

Blag discussed the upcoming Dwarves record, Jenkem (set for release on June 5th), and shared his thoughts on why he enjoys touring with metal line-ups today, noting that modern punk spaces can sometimes feel overly doctrinaire or rigid compared to the straightforward “just want to rock” mentality of metal fans

The thing I wanted to know about the most was the death of a band member “he who shall not be named”. Blag recounted the infamous 1993 Sub Pop publicity stunt where the band faked the death of their guitarist, leading to massive backlash, getting dropped by the label, and how Sub Pop initially found it funny until the public turned.
“The underground is tolerated by executives only as long as it generates safe, profitable rebellion. The second the chaos incurs real-world friction, the suit-and-tie apparatus detaches itself like a lizard dropping its tail.”