April Wine And Triumph Reload The Rock Machine In Camden
by Alex Lloyd Gross
Triumph is on a short tour of the US that took them to Camden last night for a show and they brought their friends April Wine with them. This night was on fire, literally. The crowd, let’s just say they did themselves a disservice when April Wine was on stage.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo Delaware Valley News.com Gil and Rik share a moment on stage in Camden.
Why 99 percent of the crowd remained seated during this performance is beyond me. The show was delayed a bit to get people a chance to get in the building. When April Wine were tearing up the stage rocking such classics as “Sign Of the Gypsy Queen”, and the opener, “I Like To Rock”, it felt like the Freedom Mortgage Rest Home. Those that wanted to stand were inconveniencing others, so the majority stayed seated. While the band was on, a good number of people were in the lobby at the merch stand or getting snacks.
ALEX LLOYD GROSS PHOTO Delaware Valley News.com April Wine on stage.
That was not the show to do that. April Wine did it to themselves by not really playing this area for decades. The ballad “Just Between You and Me” is a song to sit down to and the band should have gotten that over by the fourth song. The should have included “Big City Girls” into the set. Perhaps that could have gotten the crowd on their feet quicker. They did stand for “Roller”,which was the last song.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo Delaware Valley News.com April Wine/
Up next was Triumph. For this show, the crowd was standing, just waiting for this band to go into crowd favorites like “Allied Forces”, “Lay In On the Line” and “Blinding Light Show”, Behind the band were screens showing the early days of the band, and their amazing light show from the 1970’s and 1980’s. Honestly, looking at that, it made the latest one look tame.
Rik Emmett was the center of attention for this band, playing in either a bright yellow shirt or red jacket. At times, this band used some pyro to enhance some songs, like Magic Power. From the rear of the arena, t looked like a fire on stage. Up close, it looked pretty cool as well.
Triumph were best known as a trio. Unfortunately, Mike Levine was unable to play on the tour due to health reasons. The band had Gil Moore on drums and for a few songs, he abandoned his bit and grabbed a mic . They had a few additional musicians on stage with them as well. When the band broke into “Rocky Mountain Way”, by Joe Walsh, they took a few minutes to introduce who is in the band.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo-Delaware Valley News.com Rik Emmett see you in the crowd.
Some people like to see solos when they see a rock show. Other do not, Triumph took about 10 minutes from the show for band members to play solos. At least two other songs could have been played in lieu of the solos. Some liked it, but others sat down.
This was the bands 50th reunion and let’s hope they keep it going. The age for retirement is 65 and this band should stick to that and keep touring for another 15 years at least. They proved it’s not the age of the band members but the age of the band.