by Michael McCarthy
Last night on May 23rd, 2026, I finally saw the influential doom metal band Pentagram in concert for the very first time. And it will likely have been the last time because the band’s current tour, The Last Rites Tour, is being framed as a farewell tour. And given frontman Bobby Liebling’s age and health concerns and such, I do believe they’re being genuine when they call it their final tour.
Some people refer to Bobby Liebling as the “godfather of doom metal” but I would go one step further and say that he’s the guy who invented doom metal. I don’t think that term or genre even existed before Pentagram started releasing their music. Obviously, Black Sabbath laid much of the groundwork but Pentagram helped shape doom metal into the hypnotic, psychedelic form that later bands would build upon. And you would have a hard time finding a doom metal band today that doesn’t credit Pentagram as being one of their primary influences.
When I was arriving at Taffeta in Lowell, Massachusetts for the show last night, I spotted Bobby smoking a cigarette right outside the tour bus. I stopped walking and thought about approaching him for an autograph and to say hello but he was finishing the cigarette and went back into the bus. But we saw each other through the window and I gave him a wave and he waved back, which I thought was nice of him. I wanted to hang out after the show and see if he was going to sign autographs or take pics outside the bus but unfortunately I have a bad back and I had stood up for much of Pentagram’s set and my back was really bothering me so I requested a Lyft home right after the show.
Fortunately, they were selling photos signed by Bobby and the rest of the current lineup for just 25 dollars last night so I still have his autograph in my collection now, which makes me very happy. (I’m not a very big autograph collector but I have quite a few, maybe around 200.) I also scored a t-shirt for 35 and a CD copy of Pentagram’s latest album, Lightning in a Bottle for 20 dollars. But I could have easily spent 300 dollars at the merch table last night and still walked away wishing I could have bought more. I’m always wishing artists had more merch or a wider variety of merch but Pentagram had everything you could imagine. Something like a dozen different t-shirts, jackets, at least a half dozen different patches, stickers, signed drum heads, CDs, vinyl and at least a few other things I’m blanking on now. And I thought the prices were all very reasonable. I’m sure the band would’ve sold just as many t-shirts if they were charging 50 dollars for them so I thought it was nice of them to only charge 35. Everything was reasonably priced, honestly. 25 dollars for a photo signed by Bobby and the rest of the band is really a steal compared to what most bands charge for signed photos; the going rate is usually between 60 and 100 dollars.
Pentagram kicked off last night’s set with a high energy, ultra heavy performance of “Live Again,” the first song on the band’s latest album, Lightning in a Bottle, which just might be my favorite Pentagram album. I know everyone raves about the early stuff and I love that, too, but Lightning in a Bottle is perhaps Bobby Liebling at his most brutally honest and self-reflective. And everything he’s seen and done up to this point informs the album. The fact that he’s older and reflecting back on his life gives the lyrics a sense of hard-earned wisdom.
Next up was the classic “Starlady” from the album First Daze Here followed by “The Ghoul” from the album Turn to Stone. Both sounded excellent. As always, I found Pentagram’s music to be truly hypnotic last night. And a lot of the shirts and posters were very psychedelic looking so I don’t think Bobby would mind me saying that I find their sound to be rather psychedelic, too. Every song kind of takes you on a trip.
Throughout the show, Bobby seemed to be bursting with the energy of a guy half his age. If you’ve seen the documentary Last Days Here, you know that there have been Pentagram shows over the years where Bobby performed badly or didn’t show up at all but last night he was present, physically and mentally. Sure, he gave us his crazy eyed look that he’s famous for several times but he also looked like he was enjoying himself and having fun up there. Which was great. It obviously would have been a downer if he barely moved and looked miserable.
I believe the lineup last night was the lineup on the Lightning in a Bottle album, which would be Tony Reed on guitars, Henry Vasquez on drums and Scooter Haslip on bass. All of them delivered powerful performances. Interestingly, Vasquez actually wrote the lyrics for several songs on the Lightning in a Bottle album, including “Lady Heroin.” I’m sure “Lady Heroin” is personal for Bobby, who was previously addicted to it, when he performs it but the lyrics were actually written by the drummer.
Bobby did remark that one of the songs they did last night was about heroin but it was not “Lady Heroin,” which I would have really loved to hear live.
For me, the songs that I thought went over the best were “Sign of the Wolf (Pentagram),” one of the band’s most famous classics, and the Lightning in a Bottle tracks “Walk the Sociopath” and “Thundercrest.”
This was the second show that I’ve attended at Taffeta and I have to say it’s a really nice room. The sound is excellent and you don’t feel like you’re crammed in like sardines, although last night it was packed so I suppose a few people might’ve felt like they wanted more elbow room but you expect to be in a sea of people at a rock show anyway. I should also note that the staff were very nice and friendly, too. I asked for the ADA seating section, being that I’m disabled, and someone brought me right over to it. I tried two of their custom drinks, the jalapeno mango margarita and the watermelon Red Bull margarita and both were excellent. But I will warn you: I asked the bartender to just put a drop of the jalapeno syrup in my drink and that’s what she did and I thought it was just spicy enough. I tend to like things moderately spicy, not things that totally set your mouth on fire. And I thought it was just right. So unless you like things more than moderately spicy, I would advise you to do what I did and just ask for a drop of the jalapeno syrup.
Now I can say that I’ve seen Pentagram live, which isn’t something a whole lot of their fans can say, being that there were long periods of time when the band was inactive or otherwise not touring. Suffice to say, I consider myself lucky and will definitely cherish my memories of this one. If you have the opportunity to catch them on the remaining dates of the Last Rites Tour, I would highly recommend that you do.
Here are some recent Pentagram videos people have posted on Youtube. I couldn’t find any from the show I went to yet.
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