Triumph - Live At The US Festival
Performance
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Triumph - Live At The US Festival
Performance
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Get in your time capsules arena rock fans and travel back 25 years to witness Triumph's explosive performance at the 1983 US Festival. On May 29th, of that year, Canadian rockers Triumph joined six other of the most distinguished hard rock and heavy metal bands of the time to lay it all on the line at Glen Helen Park, San Bernardino, CA, site of the historic US Festival. The day was billed as "Heavy Metal Sunday" and featured the incredible lineup of Quiet Riot, Motley Crue, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Triumph, Scorpions, and Van Halen, in that order. There were nearly 500,000 crazed metal heads in attendance on that one day to witness this monster event. Where in the hell is the DVD of the entire show, is what I want to know! Along with some pretty great music, Triumph were also known for having one of the most impressive laser and pyrotechnic fueled stage shows to ever grace your town's professional hockey arena. You can witness the full force of one of these shows on the band's A Night Of Triumph concert DVD, which captured them on their 1987 world tour. Live At The US Festival finds the band stripped to their bare essentials - just three great musicians and their instruments playing under the blazing sun, without the comfort of a massive stage show to hide behind. And they deliver! The video begins with dramatic footage of the band climbing onboard a helicopter at some offsite location before flying over the festival grounds to the backstage drop off area. On route, you are able to view the awesome site of a half-million people gathered to witness a whole day's worth of rock and roll. As the band takes the stage, drummer/vocalist Gil Moore greets the crowd with "I want to see some allied forces out there making a little noise!" As the crowd enthusiastically answers his command, Rik Emmett launches into the opening riff of the pounding title track to their 1981 album Allied Forces to kick off the show. For the next few songs Emmett takes over the lead vocals and leads the band through some of their more melodic material. If there was ever any doubt about whether Rik Emmett is one of the best guitarists of the era, then this powerful performance certainly lays that nonsense to rest. Whether he is picking through some wonderfully clean and melodic arpeggios on his custom, double-neck, electric guitar, or hammering out ferocious power chords on his go-to, Framus Akkerman hollow-body electric, his performance was simply phenomenal. And that's without even getting to any of his brilliant acoustic guitar work. Emmett's incredible vocal range is also a thing of wonder. He is able to transition fluidly between soothing, mid-ranged vocals into a searing falsetto that would even make his fellow countryman Geddy Lee jealous. Emmett really shines during their performance of the epic title track to their 1977 sophomore album Rock & Roll Machine, where he takes about a two hour guitar solo that runs through every style in his arsenal. If only the damn camera man hadn't focused so much on the crowd during it. Listening to the crowd's response when the band leaves the stage for the first time tells you all you need to know about their performance. Nearly everyone in the enormous sea of people were cheering wildly for an encore. After toweling off backstage for a few minutes, the band came back out to give the fans exactly what they wanted, closing the set with my favorite Triumph song, "Fight The Good Fight". The DVD features excellent sounding DTS 5.1 Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, and Dolby Stereo audio tracks that were remixed from the original masters. The picture looked about as good as you can expect from a 25 year old, outdoor stadium concert, performed in the bright sunlight. Special features include a 2003 interview with Mike Levine and Gil Moore, the videos for "Spellbound" and "Follow Your Heart", and a fascinating, 33-minute documentary titled "Inside the Rock and Roll Machine", which highlights the explosive Triumph arena rock show. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - December 2007 |
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Running Time: 56 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - September 2003 |