By Artie Capshaw

You know those songs which open with seemingly endless drum n bass breaks? Most of us just go back to the bar until the set stays in earnest. But DJ Fistula, a connoisseur of live approximations of studio- steady beats, took some bands’ ever- lengthening intros as a personal challenge.
So how far ahead of the vocals and melodies did Fistula choose to begin his beats? Three minutes? Five? Try SIX HOURS. He cane into the Bullfinch in mid- afternoon, set up his kit and started swinging. Forty-five minutes later Mo Walsh waltzed in and plugged in his bass. A half hour later, Fisti was risking carpal tunnel, so Bullfinch booker/ barback extraordinaire Q took over for a while. Q was the guy who’d OKed the project, and who’d warned the middle- aged Bullfinch administrators that they might not want to do office work that day.
A few subs later– including us, in our pro drumming debut– out was nearing showtime, and the sidemen (whom in most bands might be considered frontmen) took their places… for a standard 35- minute opening set.
Which most of us couldn’t focus on anyway, after that longwinded, mesmerizing lead-in.
No one has yet tried to better DJ Fistula’s beat- busting record, But Sonny Blitt insists he’s got a drippy faucet in hits bath tub that’s a contender.

The Composition Books, who don’t even have a drummer, at the Bullfinch… Flight Paper, which boasts two drummers—and two guitarists, and two bassists; they’re kind of a franchise—at Hamilton’s… Made in Vietname at D’ollaire’s….