During the Stanley Cup finals, Payback Time gets a little more awesome

Dear Payback Time: I’ve been an avid reader of this fine rag for many years, and I’ve always been curious as to what Payback Time is all about. All you guys say is “voice your impotent rage” and then you win some tickets. It’s just so vague. Am I supposed to go to a concert and get mad that I have to pay $7.50 for a Molson Canadian? Am I supposed to be mad that it rains while I wait in line? Sure, there are lots of things to get mad about in regard to the city’s music scene, but I’d just like a better explanation as to what I’m getting angry about over here.

> David Laing

Mike Usinger replies: Dearest David—Believe it or not, that’s actually a really great question, and one that gets asked more often than people might imagine. Ideally, you find something in the music section that you feel is off-base or in bad taste and then call us on it. It can be anything: a concert that we thought sucked but you loved; a write-up of a record that we couldn’t praise enough but that you shipped off to Charlie’s after one listen; or a photo caption that we found funnier than the collected works of the Lonely Island but you considered about as knee-slapping as Jack Black. You then write in, abuse us, and we let you pick tickets to whatever Live Nation club show you’d love to see but aren’t willing to blow the last of your welfare money on. For the duration of the Vancouver Canucks’ Stanley Cup run, however, we’ve decided to open things up a bit. As you might know, we here in the music section enjoy the nonstop colour commentating of the CBC’s Craig Simpson about as much as the Boston Bruins are going to enjoy playing against Ryan Kesler, Alexandre Burrows, and Maxim Lapierre. So, throughout the finals, you don’t even have to bitch about music. Simply write in with your thoughts on Craig Simpson and why he can’t seem to zip it for more than 32 seconds at a time, and we’ll give you free concert tickets. Admittedly, Canucks’ tickets would be even better, but, should a couple of those appear in the mail, we’re keeping them for ourselves. If only because we won’t have to listen to Craig Simpson play a human Chatty Cathy doll with a ripping case of Montezuma’s revenge of the mouth.

You can voice your impotent rage by snail mail or by sending in an email to payback@straight.com