There is something really uplifting and life affirming about classic rock music. Music heals, so Spitz Stadiums rocked with the sounds of the classics, July 23 as the Lethbridge Music Festival brought the baseball field alive with the sound of music.
While I unfortunately missed the Cody Hall band and Alyssa McQuaid, I caught presumable the last show from local blues rock band Zojo Black, featuring guitarist/ frontman Greg Gomla, bassist Tyson Maiko, lead guitarist Paul Kype and drummer Brad Valgardson
They played mostly a set of covers like Come Together,” with a few originals from their CD including “ Keep It Real” and “Imagine.”
There was plenty of pretty guitar playing from Kype and Gomola who each took turns soloing as well as singing.
The
y ended their set with “ Under My Thumb,” a Rolling Stones cover, Kenny Shields and Streetheart are known for.
Local classic metal band Tyrants of Chaos focussed on original material from their new CD for their set.
They drew heavily from the well of 1970’s and ’80s metal. Frontman Phil Sirias’s impressive piercing air raid siren voice and the twin guitar attack of Curtiss Vaselenak and Sandy Lawson plus the throbbing bass of Paul Denton and thunderous drumming of Ryan Dyck were reminiscent of the likes of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. So a cover of Iron Maiden”s “Wasted Years” and a cover of Black Sabbath’s “ The Mob Rules“ fit right in with their originals.
Their originals featured plenty of big riffs and screeching solos punctuated by Sirias’s howls.
Much of their set was dominated by an epic length song called “One Night Stand” about “a medieval battle in Brittania” which featured multiple time tempo changes and solid guitar playing. Sirias stepped back and let the guitarists solo.
They ended their set with a big version of Accept’s ’80s hit “Balls to The Wall” and made way for Damage Inc.
Fans of radio ready Metallica, enjoyed local Metallica tribute Damage Inc.— A Tribute to Metallica. It ended up being the last show with lead guitarist Paul “Kirk Hammett” Melanson. They definitely sounded like Metallica, nailing all of the riffs and solos of songs like “ Enter Sandman,” “ Unforgiven Too” and For Whom the Bell Tolls.”
I had to leave midway through their set and also missed Kenny Shields and Streetheart, but I arrived back in time for Rik Emmett and his solo band.
They took the audience o
n a trip back to the ’80s, playing an array of the Canadian power trio Triumph’s greatest hits.
The youthful looking 63-year-old Emmett, who had the energy of a man half his age, humbled many a guitarist in the crowd, which has swelled to about 1,000 by the time they took the stage.
And he proved he could still hit those impressive vocal high notes he hit in Triumph”s early ’80s heyday.
While he is widely regarded as a guitar god, Emmett was content to step back and let his lead guitarist Dave Dunlop play his share of the solos while Emmett played rhythm guitar and sang. Though when Emmett did grinningly take a solo, he was absolutely amazing.
They began with one of Triumph’s best known hits ‘ Lay It On The Line,” and followed it up with one of their last hits “ Somebody’s out There.”
Bassist/ keyboardist Steve Skingley sang “Allied Forces,” which Gil Moore originally sang in Triumph.
They slowed things down a touch for“ Ordinary Man,” from Triumph’s “Allied Forces” album, which Emmett prefaced by talking about baseball and the .367 rule, which was Ty Cobb’s batting average, hooking it on a brief observation of not putting too much pressure on yourself.
But it was time to rock after that as they played Triumph’s version of Joe Wash’s “ Rocky Mountain Way,” their first hit.
That jam allowed Emmett to step back to let band mates guitarist Dave Dunlop, drummer Paul Delong and bassist Steve Skingley show off their skills in quick solo spots, which he aptly described as sounding like “Santana meets the Allman Brothers.”
Emmett incorporated a few bars of Jimi Hendrix into his solo spot, which segued into a Led Zeppelin medley, which included the riffs of “Whole Lotta Love,” and “ The Ocean” and “Living Loving Maid.”
The shows showpiece, which wound down the show was, of course, “Magic Power” one of Triumph’s biggest hits, which Emmett described as “being about how listening to the radio made me feel as a kid.”
The band had something truly special planned for this as Emmett and Dunlop dissected the solo into pieces, with Dunlo and Emmett alternately playing one part, harmonizing on others and alternating between parts again. It was flawlessly done.
They wound up their part of the show with a huge version of “ Fight the Good Fight.”
Tom Cochrane and Red Rider finished the show with a hits heavy set , which covered all of the basics and then some.
A couple of audience members waved Red Rider albums in the front row as Cochrane observed he was glad to see so many Canadian flags on the backs of the chairs in front of the stage.
They began strong with “ Boy Inside the Man”and “Untouchable One” which he dedicated to “all of the strong women in the crowd.” Red Rider, aka bassist Jeff Jones, steel guitarist, keyboardist and lead guitarist Ken Greer and drummer Gary Craig followed that up with a similarly themed “Victory Day,” which featured Greer on steel guitar.
“Big League,” one of Cochrane‘s bigger hits came early on in the set before he turned things down a notch for an acoustic set including the apt “ Good Times” Cochrane gave the a band a bit of a break as he played a solo acoustic version of “ Ocean Blue” into an entire acoustic set which also included “Sinking Like a Sunset” and “ I Wish You Well,” as Greer slowly made his way back on stage for a subtle solo. Jones added subtle background vocals.
Greer was impressive throughout, alternating between all three instruments, sometimes in the same song and singing background vocals as well.
The whole band returned to wind down the set with a massive version of “Human Race,” featuring haunting steel guitar and a jammy version of “ Hit the Road Jack,” followed by “ No Regrets” and ended their set with arguably their biggest hit “ Life is A Highway.”
