Heavy Metal Groups Strike a Sour Chord

Your article on the L.A. metal scene lacks a discussion of perhaps the furthest-reaching, terrible contribution of the metal culture, namely pay-to-play. Bob Sipchen mentions most club owners’ practice of making bands pay before granting them stage time, but fails to explain that if it were not for those metal bands that will pay, the arrangement would not exist.

As a local alternative/punk fanzine editor, I am constantly made aware of the problems of this peculiarly Los Angeles institution. I hear of $200 spent for a 15-minute slot before an audience of 30.

All over Southern California, bands with principle are uniting to protest and refuse to participate in this unjust system. Bands of this sort have few places to play as more and more clubs, knowing they can get the metal bands to pay them, turn to pay-to-play.

JENNIFER SIMPSON

Upland