Triumph — Hard Rock Live, Hollywood, Florida

April 13th 2026

Review by Robert Corich

There are concerts you go to because you want to hear the songs. There are concerts you go to because you want to see the band. And then there are those rare evenings when the two things collide with something rather more profound — the realisation that you are finally standing in the same room as a band you had long ago convinced yourself you would never see.

Triumph at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida, was very much one of those nights.

I never thought I would see Triumph live.

For decades they existed in that slightly mythical category of bands whose records had become part of the soundtrack to my life, but whose actual stage presence seemed destined to remain something I would only ever experience through photographs, bootlegs and other people’s memories.

And yet, there they were.

The second night of the Rock & Roll Machine Reloaded tour, and the opening salvo of Triumph’s first sustained run of dates in more than three decades.

Following April Wine’s highly enjoyable opening set, Triumph appeared at 9:15pm and opened with the atmospheric Time Canon, before the enormous riff of When the Lights Go Down announced that this was no museum-piece reunion.

Somebody’s Out There and Spellbound followed, with Rik Emmett’s guitar immediately demonstrating why his playing has always been such an important part of the Triumph sound. There is a particular quality to Emmett’s guitar work — technically accomplished without ever losing sight of melody — and hearing it in a live setting after all these years was something of a revelation.

Then came Hold On, before Allied Forces and Blinding Light Show took us deeper into the catalogue.

This was the Triumph I had imagined.

Only somehow it was better because it was actually happening.

Rock & Roll Machine was another reminder that Triumph were never simply about the singles. There was a progressive streak running through the band from the beginning, and the instrumental passages gave Emmett plenty of room to stretch out.

The unexpected appearance of Joe Walsh’s Rocky Mountain Way provided another highlight, with Gil Moore taking the vocal. It was a reminder that this was a living band rather than a group simply reproducing its greatest hits.

Then came the sequence that, for me, turned a great concert into something rather more emotional.

Never Surrender.

Lay It on the Line.

Follow Your Heart.

Magic Power.

These are songs that have lived with me for years. Songs I never expected to hear performed by the musicians who created them. Suddenly they weren’t records spinning on a turntable or tracks coming through headphones — they were being played directly in front of me.

And there was real authority behind them.

Gil Moore remains an extraordinary drummer and a vital vocal presence, while Emmett’s guitar playing was every bit as expressive and adventurous as one could have hoped. Around them, Phil X, Todd Kerns and Brent Fitz provided a formidable modern framework around the two original members.

The absence of original bassist Mike Levine was inevitably noticeable for anyone who knows the history of the band. Levine was unable to take part in most of the tour because of a hand problem, with Kerns filling the bass position.

But rather than dwell on what wasn’t there, it was far more rewarding to concentrate on what was.

And what was there was Triumph.

The encore of I Live for the Weekend and Fight the Good Fight provided the inevitable final release, the latter sounding particularly appropriate after such a lengthy absence from the road.

There was something wonderfully symbolic about that song bringing the evening towards its conclusion.

Because Triumph really have fought the good fight.

And somehow, against the odds, they have returned.

For me, however, there was another element to this particular evening that made it especially satisfying.

April Wine were the support.

That might sound like a simple line in a concert listing, but to anyone who grew up with Canadian hard rock, it was quite a pairing. April Wine opened with I Like to Rock, You Could’ve Been a Lady, Say Hello, Oowatanite, Enough Is Enough, Just Between You and Me, Sign of the Gypsy Queen and Roller.

Forty minutes wasn’t nearly enough.

What made the Canadian invasion of the Hard Rock even more amusing was that this wasn’t my first experience of it. Only a few weeks earlier I’d watched The Guess Who on precisely the same stage, and they too had managed to seriously impress the audience, drawing on both the Guess Who catalogue and the Bachman-Turner Overdrive connection.

It seemed that the local yokels were perfectly happy to embrace Canadian rock when it was coming through a stack of Marshall amps.

Which brings us back to Triumph and April Wine.

Two Canadian rock institutions. Two catalogues packed with songs that deserve to be heard in a live environment. Two bands whose audiences overlap considerably, but who each bring something distinctly their own.

And given the increasingly extraordinary political relationship between Canada and its southern neighbour, there was something rather delicious about seeing two of Canada’s finest rock exports standing on an American stage and reminding everyone exactly what Canadian musicians have contributed to the world.

With Trump’s repeated threats and rhetoric towards Canada having made the relationship with America’s northern neighbour increasingly toxic, perhaps the best response is not another political argument but simply to turn up the amplifiers and let the Canadians do what they have always done so well.

Shine.

In fact, in the current climate, a Triumph and April Wine tour of the UK feels almost like a public service.

A proper run of dates.

Not a nostalgia package thrown together because the names happen to be familiar, but a genuine celebration of Canadian rock music, with two bands that still have plenty to say and, more importantly, plenty to play.

After seeing them together in Florida, I can’t think of many rock fans of my generation who wouldn’t welcome that prospect.

And if the Hard Rock Hollywood concert proved anything, it is that Triumph still have the Magic Power.

I went into the building knowing I was finally going to see a band I had never believed I would see.

I came out simply grateful that I had been wrong all those years.

Some concerts are about nostalgia.

Some are about history.

And some remind you that the music you loved all those years ago is still very much alive.

This was one of those nights.

Canadian Knights indeed…