The conference center had caused turmoil in the community because of the type of entertainment it books, including raves, according to The Courier-Journal in Louisville.

Insane Clown Posse’s Web site posted a message, apparently from its record company, Psychopathic Records, that contended the Louisville city council, fire marshal and police department had “tried every legal means to shut down the show. Of course, the Psychopathic road crew, in anticipation of the Redneck assholes in the Louisville city government, made sure that everything was impeccably legal.”

Jefferson county police dispatchers received a report that a bomb was in the Paroquet Centre. The opening band, MARZ, was playing when the sound was cut off at approximately 8 p.m.

“Strangely enough, the person who phoned in the bomb threat didn’t phone the venue or Psychopathic Records. They instead phoned the police directly (yeah, right!),” the posting read. “Police with riot gear, who somehow seemed to be deployed BEFORE the threat was phoned in, began rushing the venue. …”

According to the Journal, tour manager Bill Dail said people were told to leave the building but no one communicated a sense of urgency. (Dail and the band’s Psychopathic Management could not be reached for comment.)

Police began using pepper spray after the crowd started throwing bottles and cans at police while they were being ushered out, according to Shepherdsville Police Chief Ronald Morris.

“They were hollering and cussing,” Morris said. “They just wouldn’t leave.”

A representative for Psychopathic Records told the Journal that chaos erupted when people began trying to escape the pepper spray. The band’s Web site mentioned a 14-year-old fan who was “grabbed by five police officers, thrown to the ground, and repeated(ly) beaten over the head until he passed out.”

“We at Psychopathic Records vow to bring the redneck bigot cops to Justice!” the posting read, mentioning that most of the “atrocious” acts were caught on tape and copies were being shipped to the record company’s Detroit headquarters.

JoAnn Yates, executive director of the Paroquet Centre, told Pollstar the venue wishes to work with concert promoters, but preferably for acts less controversial than ICP. Yates disagreed with the ICP Web site posting, saying that the police were not in riot gear and responded to the bomb threat quickly.

She said that the audience did not leave quickly and believed many of the kids may have thought the announcement was just part of the show.