Well, I'm home...a two hour train ride, an 11 hour flight and a 90 minute drive later, I'm home from Sweden.
Trying to stay up late enough to re-adjust my body clock (again), so I figured I'd give you folks a few more details besides "it was freakin' awesome!!" :-)
OK, naturally it was not all perfecto-mundo as our friend the Fonz would say. Early in the set, say the first 3-4 songs, there were some sound problems with the guitars, particularly Rik's. You could hear some humming and cracking from time to time and I could tell they were desperately trying to fix it. Not that anything sounded horrible or spoiled a song, but you could pick it up a little.
It did get ironed out, tho, and the guitars sounded great the rest of the show. I did notice Rik canned his cordless transmitter by the end of the show and was going with cable, just as Dave did the entire performance.
Next, there were a few little minor goofs on the ends of a couple of songs, particularly Blinding Light Show...Gil brought along the big 'ol gong to hammer with the mallet, but it looked like there was some confusion as to when the cue for it was. But, eventually he did bash it and it was just like old times. :-)
Gil sounded maybe a little nevous during the start of the vocal for When the Lights Go Down...not bad, but a little tentative. That might have been a sound problem as well, not sure.
But, aside from that, I truly have no other "criticisms." I truly felt it was a fantastic, strong and ENTHUSIASTIC performance...the guys looked like they were having a BLAST out there. Rik was smiling the whole show and Mike was nonstop energy on stage. Dave Dunlop is a GREAT addition...I know many like the trio and such, but between his killer guitar skills and rock solid background vocals and all that, it truly enhances the sound to a great extent. Gil was in EXCELLENT form on the drums. He hit his fills, his tempos were spot on from what I could tell and he some nice little licks throughout the show. I've always thought he is a great cymbal player and that showed up a lot during the gig.
Song by song notes, or at least as best I can remember:
When the Lights Go Down--they did a little lead in/build up to the opening lick; not like on Stages, but along that same kind of thing. Mike stepped up to the mike in his Mats Sundin Swedish national hockey team jersey--he knows how to work the crowds, eh?--and said hello, thrilled to be here, let's get some hands clapping and got strong response from the crowd. Nice tight finish and then great crowd pop when they closed the tune.
Lay it On the Line--arrangement was a lot like what I've seen Rik do on his solo shows; the extended noodling guitar intro, then into the Lay It chorus chord progression-da da, da da, DA DA, then back into the regular intro and the bluesy-ish vocal start he uses these days...thousands of fists pumping during the chorus. :-)
Allied Forces--This tune probably had the most guitar tech problems, which was unfortunate because it sounded like Rik was KILLING the solo when the channel was clear. However, Gil's vocal absolutely rocked and Dave's rhythm parts really set up Rik to do all of his Rik lick tricks. They didn't bring the Dean V for this like I'd seen in Chicago; Rik stayed with the Les Paul.
Re the guitars, don't know if I mentioned that before, but for those who were wondering, Rik went exclusively with two Les Pauls, with exception of BLS, when he broke out the white Gibson double neck. I was surprised he didn't used it on Never Surrender or Magic Power, where he stayed with the Les Paul. Peavey 5150 heads on Marshall amps for both Rik and Dave; Dave played his Strat on almost every tune but did use a Les Paul as well on at least one song.
Never Surrender--a personal highlight for me. I've always LOVED the tune and was thrilled and amazed they included it, and EVEN MORE THRILLED AND AMAZED at how great it sounded. Rik's voice absolutely soared, even at the end on that super high "spread your wings and flyyyyy." Now, granted, I'm sure the arrangement is down a notch or two to make that a tad easier, but still--crystal clear and pure and just spot on.
I Live for the Weekend--I think this was the tune where they got the guitar issues figured out, because it went over great. Dave and Rik did some dueling licks and Gil again nailed the vocal.
Blinding Light Show--another personal fave of mine; the crowd didn't really know it, however, so while they were polite and cheering Rik's extended 12-string solo, the response was somewhat tepid. It is a long tune, but hey, Gil gets to take a break. :-) And I thought it sounded great, aside from the perhaps confusion over the gong cue at the end...the twin Dave-and-Rik guitar part--the "Iron Maiden-y" part of past discussions on this board--was "oh, yeah, baby."
Rocky Mountain Way--this was the designated extended Rik and Dave jam tune. And they killed it. It's not my favorite tune to include in the set, but the crowd ate it up when Rik and Dave went head to head. :-)
Magic Power--gotta say it was a highlight of the trip to hear 30,000 mostly European accents singing "I'm young, I'm wild and I'm free..." Rik stepped back from the mike and let the crowd do half that verse and it was pretty impressive for crowd sing alongs. As for the rest, well, it was Magic Power...obviously it was incredible.
Rock and Roll Machine--this was the old fashioned Rock and Roll Machine we all know and love, complete with Rik's extended solo...very true to what we hear from US Festival and Stages versions. The twist was that, yes, they finished the tune, but in a very cool way--kind of made the return finishing verse into a grunge-metal kind of thing with real heavy rock phrasings in a Judas Priest, boom boom, boom boom, boom boom, boom boom kind of way. I can't really explain it; you'd have to hear it...they slow the tempo down and it really a cool twist.
Fight--well, since it's my all time fave, they can do no wrong...but they didn't. Soulful vocal, powerful guitar solo, soaring ending, hard jam to the finish--could swear I saw C.C. Deville from Poison sidestage with a big grin watching Rik tear it up. Then of course we had Mike give the big thanks...surprisingly, his "TRiumph loves youuuuu" was a little short and compact to what we're accustomed to, but it was there nonetheless.
I'll have more news and notes to post tomorrow...the pics Matt Levine posted are WAY better than the cheese from my cell phone camera, so I won't even bother sending mine along. Yeah, the stage looked great, teh guys looked great on it, etc. Oh, and almost forgot--there was PYRO!!! Yep, flashpots on 3 or 4 songs, including the big sequential burst toward the end of Fight. It was cool and scared the crap out of me the first song because I actually wasn't expecting it. Managed not to spill my $9 beer, tho. :-)
Thx Very Much,
Get some rest and we hope to hear from u later....................I Wish I was U................
Thanks for the post OC!
Rik had wireless problems the day before during practice and a replacement unit was expected the next day. Maybe that didnt work out after all.
Thanks OC
That must have been an exciting performance to watch, if I would have won the lotto in time I would have gone.
Too bad about the sound problems.
Triumph has always had a sound problem on the first song of the show, glad they fixed it.
Rock on, I hope your ready for phase two ( Rok 08)
Hank
sounds awesome, great reporting!
EDIT: Brendan said Rik thought everything went fantastic, got a message from him on facebook a few minutes ago.
Thanks again for the report, OC. Very detailed & informative. I can't wait to hear that new ending to "R&R Machine!"
What's another day of rock & roll!! Go, Triumph!!
- SCHRADE
Hello everybody!
I´m new to the forum and this is my first post. Of course I was at Swedenrock. I live in Sweden and couldn´t miss it for the world! The show was fantastic but the setlist was not. I didn´t notice the problems with the guitars mentioned in the previous post though. Rik sang like a god and could even hit the high notes that other singes like Rob Halford, Joe Elliot and David Coverdale at this festival couldn´t. Personally I was disappointed that we didn´t get a single song from the last three albums (my favourite ones!). Triumph not playing "Follow your heart" is like Priest not playing "Breaking the law" to me.
My favourite picks from the show would be "Never surrender" and "Lay it on the line". They were awesome - plain and simple! Anyway, Triumph is back and thats all I care about. The setlist could be forgiven on this night of Triumph!. This was the first show in Sweden ever and I was there. I´m satisfied!
The guys seemed to have fun and Mike was in great form. Gil played drums like he never stopped doing it. I hope this wasn´t the last trip to Europe. I hope they continue with some great shows in North america for all you fans overseas!
Swedishmike: Personally I was disappointed that we didn´t get a single song from the last three albums (my favourite ones!). Triumph not playing "Follow your heart" is like Priest not playing "Breaking the law" to me.
Personally I was disappointed that we didn´t get a single song from the last three albums (my favourite ones!). Triumph not playing "Follow your heart" is like Priest not playing "Breaking the law" to me.
Is it possible that they didnt play any of the later material simply because of time restraints on rehearsals? They may have been more familiar with the older material since they played it much longer than the last few albums. I'm surprised that there was no T7 stuff though, since Rik and Gil worked together on that. But perhaps it was in someways an effort to not bring up bad memories? TSOK and Surv. were made when they werent on the best of terms with each other due to record company pressures. I'm not sure what the case is, I'd expect it will be a bit different for Rocklahoma though. I did notice that Rik's solo on NS was not the smokin' fast finger stuff he did at the US Fest. too. Also, may have been due to rehearsal time restraints, its not like its easy to try to get that solo down clean in a somewhat short period of time after not playing it for almost 20 years.
I really appreciate the reports, OC! Glad to hear things went well – a small part of me (just a small part HAHA) worried things may not go as we all hoped they would. I was jamming with a buddy of mine Saturday and kept wanting to play Triumph songs on the big day.
Thanks for the pics, all.
" I'm surprised that there was no T7 stuff though, since Rik and Gil worked together on that. But perhaps it was in someways an effort to not bring up bad memories?"
That´s exactly what I was thinking! I don´t think Rik in particular likes the later material which is just too bad. There was tension growing in the band when these songs were recorded. If your not a Triumph fan very few can sing along to the songs on the first record and you could tell by the crowds response to "Blinding light show". I would love to hear songs like Killing time (the only duet made by the band), Headed for nowhere and never say never live! Maybe next time.....
Swedishmike:" I'm surprised that there was no T7 stuff though, since Rik and Gil worked together on that. But perhaps it was in someways an effort to not bring up bad memories?"That´s exactly what I was thinking! I don´t think Rik in particular likes the later material which is just too bad. There was tension growing in the band when these songs were recorded. If your not a Triumph fan very few can sing along to the songs on the first record and you could tell by the crowds response to "Blinding light show". I would love to hear songs like Killing time (the only duet made by the band), Headed for nowhere and never say never live! Maybe next time.....
triumphrules: Swedishmike: " I'm surprised that there was no T7 stuff though, since Rik and Gil worked together on that. But perhaps it was in someways an effort to not bring up bad memories?"That´s exactly what I was thinking! I don´t think Rik in particular likes the later material which is just too bad. There was tension growing in the band when these songs were recorded. If your not a Triumph fan very few can sing along to the songs on the first record and you could tell by the crowds response to "Blinding light show". I would love to hear songs like Killing time (the only duet made by the band), Headed for nowhere and never say never live! Maybe next time..... So I'm guessing we will never get to hear Rock You Down live.
Swedishmike: " I'm surprised that there was no T7 stuff though, since Rik and Gil worked together on that. But perhaps it was in someways an effort to not bring up bad memories?"That´s exactly what I was thinking! I don´t think Rik in particular likes the later material which is just too bad. There was tension growing in the band when these songs were recorded. If your not a Triumph fan very few can sing along to the songs on the first record and you could tell by the crowds response to "Blinding light show". I would love to hear songs like Killing time (the only duet made by the band), Headed for nowhere and never say never live! Maybe next time.....
Or Troublemaker! how disappointing haha
Hello everybody,I've been a fan since the mid 80s. Since I live in Sweden I guess you could call me lucky last Saturday...
I just put a review from the Sweden Rock Festival Gig at my blog.I will also add a link to a photo gallery there in a short while. Feel free to borrow any picture you like. If you want to publish them some place else, please make sure to mention who tool the picture in the first place. For high resolution photos, contact me at pseudonaja@hotmail.com.Triumph rules!!!