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More than two dozen Detroit-based bands were in Austin, Texas, through last weekend as part of the South by Southwest Music Convention, the annual gathering of bands, business and media types and music fans that featured more than 1,000 performances.
Traditionally, the festival is a place for independent bands to get noticed by the industry professionals and media gathered to scout talent. But a not-so-secret Friday night performance by metal gods Metallica stole some of that independent thunder.
The godfathers of thrash were secretly listed on the official schedule as Volsung, a metal band from Norway.
But word quickly spread about the group’s performance, which was tied to the release of a new Metallica “Guitar Hero” video game. When thousands of fans gathered to see them perform at Stubb’s — a venue in the heart of the SXSW clubbing district — it left some lesser-known independent artists to perform in half-full venues.
“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.”
“The Metallica thing was a little frustrating, but probably more so for Scott and some other Smallstone bands than us,” says Jeremy Mackinder, bassist for Whitey Morgan, which played early in the evening. “Our crowd was pretty different,” he says. “They had a decent crowd and the people that saw them loved them,” Hamilton says of Whitey Morgan.
Ideally, the draw for Metallica should’ve helped attendance figures at other nearby showcases. It didn’t. “When Metallica was done, they all went home,” Hamilton says. Source
