Metallica Piss Of Indie Bands Trying To Get A Break At SXSW

Metallica playing at Austin’s SXSW wasn’t a big surprise. There were rumors of it happening about a week before SXSW kicked off. It was said to be a “secret” show. SXSW is one of those events that helps out the smaller, independent labeled and unsigned bands get noticed by the public and people that would otherwise not have heard of them.

Due to Metallica playing there a lot of the bands that where playing their gigs while Metallica’s set was going on, didn’t get the audiences they had hoped for. Metallica played at the heart of the club district at a place called Stubb’s.

“It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen at SXSW,” says Scott Hamilton, head of Detroit-based Smallstone Records. Hamilton and a handful of Smallstone bands, including hometown outlaw country boys Whitey Morgan, were showcasing right across the street from Stubb’s at the time of the Metallica performance. “Not only did they affect my showcase, they drained every club,” Hamilton says. “Why come down here and ruin a festival that’s about breaking independent artists? A band that big has no business being at that festival.”

This is totally understandable frustration by the indie labels that expected more attention at the festival. You can read the rest of the report about this at Freep.com.