![\"Triumph](\"https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/sh-band.sh_302796976.jpg\" "\\"Triumph")
If you’re going to go to war you’d probably want the band Triumph on your side.
The power trio (augmented by three touring musicians) certainly live up to its name just from the song titles alone. Are they a well oiled machine? They are in fact a Rock ‘n Roll Machine. Will they stand up for a good cause? Yes, they Fight the Good Fight. What are the odds that they’ll turtle when the fighting gets intense? Friends, they will Never Surrender.
The jokes just write themselves. Except these aren’t jokes, they’re the set list of a band embarking on its first tour in three decades, CanCon hits that settled into the country’s collective unconscious before some of the audience members at their Rogers Place show on Thursday night were born. Power-prog situated near enough to Rush to grab stylistic comparisons, but only lightly.
Unlike some legacy bands who have no original members, the Triumph currently making its way around the country is by and large the Triumph you knew from their late ‘70s, early ‘80s heyday. Original bassist Mike Levine has opted out of touring, so everyone’s favourite auxiliary player Todd Kerns (Slash) has taken his place for the tour. Gil Moore is still behind the kit, twinned with Brent Fitz, who occasionally leaps up from his drum stool for keyboard action. Guitarist and vocalist Rik Emmett? Check. He’s in fine form, combining with touring guitarist (and brief early ‘90s Triumph member) Phil X (now with Bon Jovi) for some nifty six-string wrangling.
Now, for some of us part of the joy of this concert was in discovering which Triumph songs you had actually thought were done by their contemporaries. For me it was Follow Your Heart, which I unaccountably thought was a Prism song. To make matters worse I kept hoping for Young and Restless, which actually is a Prism song. Where is Doucette in all of this? No idea, gentle reader.
The blurring of Edmonton rock radio from my youth aside, the band itself was in excellent form. Admittedly I kept hoping that they would somehow utilize the proto Transformers imagery they liked to use in their early days and turn into actual Transformers, like the screaming metallic war eagle from 1979’s Just a Game, but a peppy take on the anthemic Magic Powers sated me. Now, that one I didn’t mistake for Harlequin or Trooper.
Openers April Wine…OK, let’s walk that back. If Triumph has the same bone structure as the band that first walked upright in 1975, April Wine’s entire innards have been completely swapped out. It’s a little difficult to call them April Wine. Frontman Brian Greenway is the only link to their storied past, and he joined a good five years after they started knocking out hits. That’s just the truth, but it’s not necessarily a slam.
If it’s a fact that April Wine is now more like a tribute band that owns the name to the original, it has to be said that they’re an excellent tribute. As with Triumph they’ve been at this long enough to have all the corny moves down pat, but they also have quite the arsenal of hooks in songs like Oowatanite, Just Between You and Me, Sign of the Gypsy Queen, their cover of You Could’ve Been a Lady. Relegated to an opening slot, they didn’t have much space to stretch out, and they didn’t even get to Tonite Is a Wonderful Time to Fall In Love. That being said, it’s a maxim that you should keep the crowd wanting more, so ending on Roller was probably their best move.
Triumph
With April Wine
When: Thursday night
Where: Rogers Place