Black Pussy gig at Calgary's Palomino cancelled after outrage over name

A popular Calgary music venue is apologizing after booking a band with a controversial name.

The Palomino Smokehouse and Social Club announced on Thursday it has cancelled the Sept. 17 appearance ofBlack Pussy.

"We are sorry if any of our supporters, friends, regulars, partners or peers are disappointed or offended as that was certainly not our intent," the downtown bar posted on itsFacebookpage.

The Portlandband has garnered attention in the past for its name choice.

The feminist arts festival Femme Wave said on Wednesday it would be pulling out of the Palominoin November because of it.

The Palominosaid that it is a strong supporter of independent music artists and "age, gender, race, sexuality or taste has never been judged here."

But the decision to drop the band from the lineup came after feedback from their community.

Reaction to the decision was mixed in the comment section under the post, and the band also weighed in.

But it's nothing new for the group, which faced apetition last year asking Canadian venues to boycott the band.

The band's name is an apparent reference to the 1971 Rolling Stones songBrown Sugarthat, according to the petition, "unmistakablyrefers to raping black women during slavery."

According to their online bio, founderDustin Hillthought the name was "fantastic"and it "encapsulates exactly what the band is: a sex-charged, '70s-influenced, hide-your-daughters-because-they're-coming-to-town rock 'n' roll band."

He said he has no plans to change the name, and most people aren't offended by it.

"I think real feminists are offended by how these people are reacting,"Hill said in a 2015 interview."I'm seeing a bigger group of that than the people offended by our band name."

Hill said the name came to him in a "meditative state".

"I wanted something that felt sexy and '70s. Those two words came to me, and I'm like, 'OK' and I felt the vibe of it for sure," he said.

"From there, I researched the words and what they meant which then led me to the Rolling StonesBrown Sugarsong it was claimed to be an anti-racist, anti-rape song, I just felt like I had hit the jackpot with a band name."

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