The solution to this is simple: stop whining and book the shit yourself.
Get an (abandoned/empty) warehouse thing for free/cheap (you'd be surprised how many landlords will gladly let you use their empty buildings for a small fee): max. $100
Bring an electricity generator if needed (cheap to rent or buy): max. $50
Bring a simple PA for the singer, you will most likely have it in your rehearsal room: $0.
Set up a simple bar/cooling/beervending stand and get your girlfriends to sell beer: costs of drinks up front: $100
Print tickets on your dad's printer, cut, stamp and handnumber them: $10
Get some local record/vinylstore to sponsor a run of 1000 posters (costs $200) that you hang only in important spots, so 100 per concert should be more than enough: $20/per gig or $0 (if sponsored)
Spam local messageboards: $0
Spam local bars and clubs with handmade flyers: $20
Ask huge friends if they would volunteer to be "bouncers-in-case" (meaning that they don't have to stand at the door all the time, but will be ready to break up fights). Metal concerts are notoriously low violence, so nothing big is required.
Make sure you declare the concert to be a "private party" so taxes and other regulations might not apply to you. Entrance is with "invitation only" - which means people HAVE to bring a flyer (which are conveniently lying around by the entrance door
...)!
If you do it like that you will end up paying $300 up front for a show. Then you'd only need to either sell:
60 tickets at $5 or 30 tickets $10 to break even. All the beer, merch and door money will be yours.
Done it a lot in the late 90s with my band. We ended up pulling 250-300 people regularly and clubs started to take us very seriously. I even remember playing a club in Cologne and it was so packed that people couldn't get in anymore. The next night Placebo were playing there and it was half empty. These days I wish my gig woulda been empty and my career path had continued like Placebo's ... haha!
It is very important to have at least one person who is a) not a stoner/pothead, b) has significant organizational skills and c) is respected by all involved. Otherwise you will fail miserably. If you are always fighting within your band, don't try this ...
On the other hand: I can only speak about Germany, but there seem to be a lot of misconceptions about what bands get paid. A national band that fills venues with 200-300 people/night will easily get paid 1500-2000 Euros + hotel/catering/etc. (multiply by 1.2 to get the US$). A band that draws 500, will get paid 3000-5000 + hotel/catering/etc. Even my electro/ebm-project gets paid 500-900 Euro per night + hotel/catering and we don't draw that many people, maybe 250 in countries like Holland when paired with another similarly known band.
I don't know what bands like Arch Enemy and Machine Head get paid, but with the ticket prices and the amount of people they are drawing it should be well in the five figures.
The self-organization route has its pitfalls (more work, possibility of some troubles), but if it is done correctly it will
a) give you the freedom to do whatever you want and play with whoever you want at the time you want
b) if you make profit, it is your profit (always feels good!)
c) underground gigs give you a lot of credibility with fans - most people don't care about a good FOH sound like you and your engineer-friends do.
d) you can do it again and again and again and again.
