Triumph came fully loaded for Toronto show with three power players
· Toronto Sun
Triumph
Friday night
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Scotiabank Arena
RATING: *** (three out of four)
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Triumph’s Rock & Roll Machine may have been reloaded for the band’s first trek in 30 years, which pulled into Scotiabank Arena on Friday night for a hometown gig, but it has a few additional players really turning up the volume.
The ‘70s Mississauga hard rock trio’s 50th anniversary trek finds original members and singers Gil Moore on drums and Rik Emmett on guitar with the added firepower of guitarist Phil X (Bon Jovi) and bassist Todd Kerns (Slash), with both also filling in on lead vocals on certain occasions, and drummer Brent Fritz (Slash) banging away alongside Moore and sometimes on his own.
Original bassist-keyboardist Mike Levine, 76, has so far sat out this tour due to health issues – apparently a hand problem – although he was supposed to be in the building watching from a suite on Friday night, according an interview I did with Moore a few weeks ago .
“We’ve taken a couple of decades off but we’re here to rock your socks off!” said Moore, 73, who began singing lead vocals and behind his kit for the show-opening, W hen The Lights Go Down , after a brief Triumph video dubbed the Time Canon .
Certainly, Emmett, 72, was no worse for wear as he showed off his guitar chops and lead vocals on the next song, Somebody’s Out There .
Initially, it seemed surprising that Kerns was on lead vocals for the next song, Spellbound (and later Follow Your Heart ), but he and Phil X (later singing lead on Allied Forces ), were so strong in their roles it only added to the strength of the hour-and-50-minute show bolstered by slick-looking graphics, video and fireworks.
Emmett joked even his grandchildren were in the crowd as he introduced Hold On , a song he “wrote 47 years ago” when he couldn’t conceive of being a grandfather and that tune saw Moore take a break from drums.
Emmett, who trotted out the double-necked guitar for Blinding Light Show , and Phil X often played side-by-side upping the ante on the big guitar sound and when Moore and Fritz were both playing it had a similar effect on drums.
Emmett showed off his guitar playing on Rock & Roll Machine
Fireworks heralded the start of Rock & Roll Machine , with Moore back on lead vocals and moving between his drum kit and out front on stage, and everyone actually cleared out entirely for Emmett’s lightning-fingered guitar solo mid-song.
Moore stayed out front the entire time as lead vocalist for a cover of Joe Walsh’s Rocky Mountain Way, which included Emmett, Phil X and Fritz solos, and Emmett returned for lead vocals on Never Surrender before sharing that position with Phil X on crowd-pleaser Lay It On The Line .
Fans also particularly enjoyed Magic Power as in the lyrics “I’m young, and I’m wild, and I want to be free, got the magic power of the music that’s in me!” with Emmett on lead again.
Moore came back out front to sing lead on the first encore song, I Live For The Weekend , and Emmett wrapped up the night as lead vocalist for Fight The Good Fight .
Opening for Triumph were fellow ‘70s Can-rock group April Wine – the perfect appetizer, despite the absence of original frontman Myles Goodwyn who died in 2023.
With guitarist Brian Greenaway their longest serving member since 1977, the group’s hits-heavy 40-minute set included Oowatanite , You Could Have Been A Lady , Say Hello , I Like to Rock , Just Between You and Me (dedicated to Goodwyn), and S ign of the Gypsy Queen .
TRIUMPH SET LIST :
(Time Canon – video)
When the Lights Go Down
Somebody’s Out There
Spellbound
Hold On
Allied Forces
Blinding Light Show
Rock & Roll Machine
Rocky Mountain Way
Never Surrender
Lay It On The Line
Follow Your Heart
Magic Power
ENCORE:
I Live For The Weekend
Fight The Good Fight