WARNING: The following news story contains references to domestic violence and elder abuse.
Hardline Media – the touring company behind Pentagram‘s debut Australian tour in August 2025 – have announced that the American band’s maiden voyage will no longer be going ahead at this time. In a statement shared today (July 18th), the promoter said that due to “the current allegations surrounding the Australia and New Zealand tour”, the tour would be “on hiatus”.
“To be clear, no visas have been granted, as has been stated previously by other media,” the statement read – although it is unclear what “other media” is being alluded to. “No venues or any staff hitherto are party to these allegations. With great respect, we appreciate your patience and understanding while we manage this situation. All ticket holders will be contacted directly, as information becomes available.”
Hardline Media: “No visas have been granted.”
The tour’s cancellation is believed to have been brought on by posts made by social activist Sherele Moody, who runs the account Femicide Watch with over 105,000 Instagram followers. Earlier today, Moody posted about the band’s tour and described frontman Bobby Liebling as a “violent thug”, owing to his past conviction and imprisonment in 2017. Liebling, then 64, was charged with first-degree assault and physical abuse/injury of a vulnerable adult – that being his then-87-year-old mother, Diane Liebling. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, with a three-year probationary period. He returned to touring with Pentagram upon his release from prison in 2019.
“Australian venues and the government are allowing a man who brutalised his elderly mum to perform here – right in the middle of a male violence epidemic,” Moody wrote in her original post. “Please reach out to the venues to express concern, but be respectful.” A follow-up post confirmed that Hardline Media had reached out to her to confirm the cancellation, with Moody also condemning an “abusive message” sent to the promoter on her behalf.
Pentagram have spent the majority of 2025 playing to the biggest crowds of their 54-year career, thanks to the band’s unexpected exposure to a new generation of listeners after footage of Liebling went viral on TikTok. Liebling formed Pentagram in 1971 out of Richmond, Virginia. He has overseen every iteration of the band in the 54 years that followed, although he took an 18-month hiatus from the band circa 2017 for the aforementioned imprisonment. Liebling’s struggles with addiction were documented in the 2011 film Last Days Here, which premiered at that year’s SXSW.
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