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A triumph of quality in 1983 festival gig ...
Canada is a very rich country and it's biggest and most reliable
export is(and hopefully will always be) music. Many legendary
Rock/Metal bands like Rush, Razor, Annihilator, Voivod and Anvil came
from this country and regardless of the fact that they "serve"
different branches of our beloved music, they all have one thing in
common: Quality! Speaking of quality, there is another representative
of Canada which definitely deserves a place in the pantheon of the
biggest bands ever, and that band listens to the name Triumph. If the
question troubling your minds is "Why?" the answer lies within "Live
at the music festival" DVD.
The Canadians justifiably belong in the category of the hard-working bands. Their first studio
release called "Triumph", was released in 1976 and until the summer
of 1983 when "Live At The US Festival" was recorded the band counted
almost six releases - quite a decent figure I would say. The band
consisted of Rick Emmet (Guitars/Vocals), Gil Moore (Drums/Vocals)
and Mike Levine (Bass/Keyboards). With this line-up they appeared in
front of 500.000 people in the US Festival in the summer of 1983 and
recorded this DVD.
I was amazed with the band's performance on this festival. Even
though they were a trio playing in a stage big enough to host Lynyrd
Skynyrd (hope you understand what I mean), they managed to fill every
square inch of that stage with their amazing performance. Rick
Emmett's performance (on vocals and guitar) was beyond criticism. Of
course he had the support of a great rhythm section consisting of Gil
Moore on the drums (he also provided the lead vocals in some of the
songs) and Mike Levine on the Bass and Keyboards.
The band performed eight songs with "Lay It On The Line" and "When The Lights Go Down"
being my favourites. It's not a surprise that they managed to make
500,000 scream their lungs out. After the last notes of "Fight the Good Fight" I felt the urge to watch their performance all
the way from the start.
This DVD also contains a 2003 interview with Mike Levine & Gill Moore, two bonus videos: "Spellbound" & "Follow Your Heart"
and "Inside the Rock and Roll Machine" - a 40 minute documentary on the
band's performance on and off the stage, during the US Festival.
This DVD made me understand what being a decent musician is all
about, and for that I have Triumph to thank! Keep the flame burning!
****
Review by John Stefanis
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