Despite community pressure to cancel the scheduled performance of controversial reggae artist Buju Banton, the show went on last night at the Blind Pig.

But while Banton was inside the club setting up for a sound check, dozens of protesters gathered outside in the early evening to wave signs reading “WWMD: What Would Marley Do?” and “Say NO To Blind Pigotry.”

Chris Armstrong, Michigan Student Assembly LGBT Commission Chair and an attendee at the rally, said the fact the Blind Pig allowed the show to go on is especially hurtful because of how much the LGBT community has supported the establishment in the past.

“We were hoping that the Blind Pig would cancel the show and they didn’t,” Armstrong said. “A lot of people come to U of M because it’s so accepting, and it has an amazing LGBT community. The Blind Pig has been a part of that.”

Banton has been criticized for lyrics in his song “Boom Bye-Bye,” in which Banton raps about shooting gay men with guns and, as some argue, burning their skin with acid. His shows have been cancelled at many venues across the country, most recently in Detroit at the Majestic Theatre.

Many of last night’s protestors contacted the Blind Pig in hopes that officials at the venue would cancel the show. But when the club decided not to cancel the show, Social Work student Lindsey McKinney decided to organize a protest.

“My panties are in a bundle, as should everyone else’s,” McKinney said, referencing a quote in yesterday’s edition of the Daily in which Faith Wood, general manager of the Blind Pig, said she wished people better understood the issue they were getting “their panties in a bundle” about.

Last night, The Blind Pig issued a statement staffers printed off and taped to the doors and windows of the building defending the venues decision to allow Banton to play.

“We have come to the conclusion that this artist does not support the point of view that he put forward in his controversial song,” which he made when he was 15 years old, the flier read. “And that, to the contrary, his current performances are celebrated by many because of the powerfully positive messages he puts forward at his concert.”

Jason Berry, the Blind Pig’s talent buyer who booked Banton, said that in the three times he has worked Banton's shows, he has never seen him play the song.

“He’s very sensitive to this topic,” he said. "Not only does he not ever perform any of his work from when he was kid, he doesn’t even allow the DJs who spin before or after his sets to play anything that would resemble homophobic material.”

Berry said that he came outside himself during the protest and had a very “civil dialogue” with the protesters. He added that he planned on opening the doors to the club when Banton discussed the controversial song.

“I went out there and talked to them myself,” Berry said. “The mayor came down and he brought the leaders of the group in and we sat there and chatted, and I was just kind of filling the mayor in on what Buju was all about and why the Pig is doing this.”

Armstrong, however, said that he does not believe that Banton’s prejudices are in the past and said he has been recorded singing his controversial song “Boom Bye-Bye” in the past couple of years.

“He was recorded saying ‘the war between me and faggots will never end,’” Armstrong said. “It’s hard to believe he’s turned a new leaf.”

Phil Volk, Michigan Democratic Party LGBT Caucus member an attendee at the rally, said the protesters are serving an important purpose.

“Any place where they allow degrading LGBT people have to know it’s wrong and they have to see (this protest) to know it’s wrong,” Volk said. “People are feeding hate by attending this concert.”

But not all LGBT activists supported the protest.