So what number tour is this going to be for you guys?

I don’t keep track. That would probably be sad. You know, a lot of the times we don’t do full-blown tours; we’ll do like a couple days, and that’s it. So this tour will just be a couple days in Tahoe, Vegas and Phoenix. We do lots of little “hang out for the weekend” things instead of full-on or weeks-on-end tours, which I’ve found kind of destroy your brain. I’d rather be excited about playing and having a good time instead of going out there and treating it like a day job.

You’re pretty notorious for your raucous live shows. Doing these kinds of shows nearly 25 years, what kind of toll have the gigs taken on you guys?

During the earlier years when you really think something interesting is going to happen to you [at a show], it definitely takes more of a toll … in fucking up people’s lives and relationships or money situations and all that shit. And again, that’s why it makes a lot more sense for us to just go out and play for a weekend and enjoy it as opposed to [doing large tours]. A lot of times it’s not practical for people, but The Dwarves have gotten to the point where we can just have a good time. In the past, you look at it as like a tour or an album, but now I look at it as just an evening, you know. Like, “I’m going to go to Las Vegas, have a great evening, and that’s it.”

What about physically?

Well, I’m still one of the most attractive people in show businesses, so I’ve got that going for me. [Laughs] I think yeah, though, that’s the thing. It doesn’t really take that big of a toll on you [when you don’t do big tours]. You know, you can be a radical band and go crazy and put your all into it, but you don’t have to stay out for three or four months and just do that. You know, it would have taken a lot more of a toll on us if we would have been more conventionally successful and been like, “Oh, we’ve been out for three years and I haven’t seen my baby,” then it’s like, “Fuck it.” I mean, we still look good, sound good and enjoy ourselves. Whereas most bands you go see look like shit, they’re miserable, and their girlfriends are crying on the phone. Most bands at they get older just seem like they’re phoning it in, and they don’t give a fuck anymore, and it’s obvious.

So clearly you don’t think The Dwarves have been phoning it in?

Oh no! I’ve been waiting for the last 10 to 15 years for younger bands to come along and just embarrass us because they have so much more energy and fun, but they never do. [Laughs] You know, we enjoy it, and we do it really well because we’re older and we come from a period where punk rock was a lot more aggressive, fun and wild. The present form of punk has some nice things about it, but mostly it’s pretty fucking tepid and weak. So even if you’re standing there and you’re 22 years old and you’re full of piss and vinegar and testosterone, you still don’t know how not to be boring. You’ve been trained to be boring, and that’s how people do music. But with The Dwarves it’s a different ball game. We came up when bands had to really prove something, and playing punk rock wasn’t something you had just to add to your resume.