METALLICA 'Had No Business' Playing SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST Festival, Says Indie Label Head

According to the Detroit Free Press, METALLICA's not-so-secret March 20 concert at Stubb's in Austin, Texas as part of the South by Southwest music convention — the annual gathering of bands, business and media types and music fans — 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.

Read the entire report from the Detroit Free Press.

Official Metallica.com footage of METALLICA's Stubb's gig in Austin, Texas as part of the "Guitar Hero: Metallica" showcase during the Texas capital's annual South By Southwest music and media festival can be viewed below.