The Hex Dispensers

Photo by John Anderson

The Hex Dispensers

If ever Beerland hatched its own anti-supergroup, it would be the Hex Dispensers. The local quartet features former and current members of This Damn Town, the Kodiaks, New Fangs, and Manikin, among others, and churns out classic cloak-and-dagger garage punk that's perfectly suited for the Red River cement block bunker. Well past the witching hour on Friday, the Dispensers stormed through the majority of their frantically paced new album, Winchester Mystery House, sounding somewhere between Mike Wiebe's High Tension Wires and Riverboat Gamblers, only darker and more terse, scarred by the confrontational intensity of scene veteran/guitarist Alex Cuervo. The band not only bolstered its sound with the addition of bassist Dave Bessenhoffer, as evidenced on "Are You an Assassin?," the lone cut from the eponymous Jay Reatard-mastered debut on Germany's Alien Snatch Records, but also balanced its attack. Cuervo and drummer Alyse Mervosh ricocheted vocals on riotous opener "Doomsday Romantic" and choice Devo cover "Gates of Steel," clearing the way for lead guitarist Tom Kodiak, while Bessenhoffer later barked out the lead for "Buy You a Ring." Most impressive was "I've Got My Doppelganger On," Cuervo issuing his best bogeyman sneer over a frantic, revolving backdrop of bass, drums, and intermittent guitars. Ten songs in less than 24 minutes – not too shabby considering that included a brief intermission to change out a broken guitar string. As Bessenhoffer shrugged, "It's not a show without a colossal fucking breakdown like that."