Killer Dwarfs still play fast and loud
Band returns to Niagara for Seneca Queen Theatre show
When you’ve been headbanging for 37 years, the injuries can pile up.
In Killer Dwarfs singer Russ Graham’s case, a few surgeries have slowed him down. There was an accident on the way home after a 2014 tour which required an airlift to the hospital and 24 stitches to his head. And there are the normal aches and pains that come from playing fast and loud for nearly four decades.
“It’s been coming to my mind a lot lately,” says Graham, who co-founded the Oshawa band in 1981. “Just because it’s such a physical band, and we were really a physical band back then. And we’re still pretty good for old guys.
“But the aches and pains, getting up in the morning, is not the same as when you’re thirty even, right?”
It’s a familiar problem among many ’80s metal bands, who’ve survived grunge, declining CD sales and each other to still play for a devoted fan base. And for Graham, that makes the ordeal of the road worth it.
They’re finally back in Niagara Saturday, playing the Seneca Queen Theatre in downtown Niagara Falls.
“We’ve always been excited about playing,” Graham says. “We’ve never gone into a show and went ‘Oh, I don’t want to do this.’ Even if you feel like crap that day, by the time you hit the first chords, something happens.
“There’s something about the band we still love after 37 years. It’s just something near and dear to us, it keeps us alive and young.”
The fact the Killer Dwarfs have hung around — off and on — for 37 years is a surprise to pretty much everyone. Despite their capable riffs and requisite ‘hair metal’ image, the band was never able to break through during the ’80s. That despite a self-titled debut album in 1983 that got the jump on the melodic hard rock Whitesnake and Bon Jovi would soon explode with.
As sales struggled, grunge arrived and band members left, Killer Dwarfs quietly pulled the plug in the mid-’90s. A reunion tour followed in 2001, but the band appeared to pack it in for good shortly after.
Then, in 2013, the previously unreleased album “Start @ One” — recorded in 1993 — prompted the Dwarfs to tour again. They’ve been intact ever since, recently signing with Megadeth bassist David Ellefson’s EMP label. Following a live album released last week (“No Guff”), a new studio album will follow next year — the band’s first in 25 years.
The music business has changed so much since then, Graham realizes a new album almost seems pointless.
“Where would they play the new music from this genre?” he wonders. “We’re lucky enough that we’re on rotation on Sirius satellite radio, on Hair Nation every day, but I don’t know … unless we wrote some song that charted, but you need so much power behind you, and I don’t know if that’s even viable at this stage of the game for bands of our ilk.
“But we do it for us and the fans. We’re not going to go out and play ten new songs off a new album — it would drive everybody batty. We have a big catalogue, so we basically play our greatest hits and we always add stuff.”
Graham also doesn’t dwell on ‘what ifs.’ Even though they’ve played Wembley Arena — opening up for Iron Maiden — he’s just as happy playing small clubs and casinos these days.
Where the fans are, Killer Dwarfs follow.
“We’re happy with it,” he says. “As long as we’re happy with each other and we can still play shows.
“The thing we’re starting to get into are the casinos. I think that’s where it’s going to go for us, which is better also for our age group because nobody wants to wait around until 12:30 at night in a club for you to go on. Your grandkids are at home. I don’t want to stay up that late, for God’s sake.”