On a Saturday night in Hamilton — the Hammer, a city that has never once pretended to be something it isn't — two of the greatest Canadian rock bands to ever plug in did something that felt less like a concert and more like a national exhale. Triumph's 50th Anniversary Tour, billed as The Rock & Roll Machine Reloaded, rolled into TD Coliseum on Apr. 25 with special guests April Wine in tow, and for a few hours, the economic anxiety, the inflation, the grind that has defined this country's last few years simply didn't exist. This was Hamilton's night. More than that, it was Canada's night.
April Wine hit the stage first, and if you walked in expecting a nostalgia act running on fumes and legacy goodwill, Marc Parent had something to say about that. The band's lead vocalist and guitarist brought a ferocious, coiled energy to every number — the kind that makes you forget to check how many original members are left standing. Brian Greenway, the sole surviving link to April Wine's storied past, anchored the set with the quiet authority of a man who has nothing left to prove but everything left to play. Greenway's guitar work was exactly where it needed to be: precise, warm, grounded in a sound that defined Canadian FM radio for a generation.
Richard Lanthier held down the low end with a groove that sat perfectly in the mix, while Roy Nichol's drumming gave the set its physical backbone — locked in, unfussy, rock solid in the best sense. But it was Parent who kept the energy from ever dipping. The set opened hard with "Oowatanite" and never surrendered momentum — "You Could've Been a Lady" (the old Hot Chocolate cover that April Wine long ago made their own), "Say Hello," "I Like to Rock," "Enough Is Enough" — song after song landed with the conviction of a band that genuinely wants to keep playing, not a band cashing a cheque.
The most affecting moment came mid-set, when "Just Between You and Me" was dedicated to founding member and creative engine Myles Goodwyn, who passed away in 2023. The arena went quiet in the way arenas only go quiet when something is genuinely felt. Then "Sign of the Gypsy Queen" — the Lorence Hud cover that became an April Wine signature — and the closing thunder of "Roller" sent the room into Triumph's hands on a full tank. April Wine's set felt short. That's the best compliment you can give an opener.
And then the lights went down. TD Coliseum, a venue with the bones of a working-class Ontario hockey barn, sold itself out for this one. The anticipation had that particular weight you only feel when a crowd has waited a very long time for something. Triumph hadn't mounted a full North American tour in over 30 years. Rik Emmett, Gil Moore, and the Mississauga hard rock power trio that helped define arena rock across two continents — this was the reunion that wasn't supposed to happen, and now it was happening, right here, in a city that probably understood it better than most.
"When the Lights Go Down" opened the set, and the irony was not lost. They came up from darkness into a wall of light and sound, and the crowd — blue-collar, grey-templed, loud as hell — responded like the song owed them money. Emmett's guitar tone cut through the room with the kind of clarity that only comes from five decades of knowing exactly what you're doing. Moore, behind the kit, was a force of nature dressed up as a drummer. The chemistry between the two was real and immediate — this was not two old friends going through the motions. There was something at stake for them.
Founding bassist Mike Levine was not on stage in Hamilton. He is managing health challenges, and his absence left a noticeable gap in the original trio's reunion optics. But the band assembled around Rik and Gil deserves its own paragraph, because calling them a "backup band" would be an insult. Todd Kerns — best known for his years anchoring Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators — brought his quintessential rock and roll swagger to the bass role, filling the low end with personality and precision. His vocal harmonies added genuine weight to songs that were always built for big rooms.
The LED glow of a thousand raised phones told you everything about what the crowd thought of it. For a crowd that skewed older, the phones were everywhere. Nobody wanted to forget any of this.
Phil X is the other name you need to know. The Montreal-born guitarist, who spent years as Bon Jovi's live six-string weapon, has a stage presence that makes arenas feel intimate. His history with Triumph is deeper than most fans realize — he appeared on the 1996 Edge of Excess album as Emmett's replacement during a chapter most would rather forget. His return to the Triumph catalogue, this time with Emmett himself present, was one of the night's more quietly remarkable subplots. Phil X played like a man who respected the songs deeply enough to let them breathe, and like a star who couldn't help himself from occasionally torching the room. Both things, simultaneously.
Completing the expanded lineup was Brent Fitz on additional drums and keys — a multi-instrumentalist who has spent years in the orbit of Slash's various projects and brings with him the kind of professional pedigree that simply elevates everything around him. The five-piece configuration gave the Triumph catalogue a fuller, rounder live sound than the original trio could have achieved alone. On paper, that's a concession to age and circumstance. In practice, it was a gift.
The setlist pulled from the deep end of the catalogue without abandoning accessibility. "Spellbound," "Allied Forces," "Never Surrender," "Rock & Roll Machine," "Hold On," "Blinding Light Show" — the band moved through the hits with purpose and without apology. A cover of Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way" sat comfortably in the middle of the set, a choice that landed well with a crowd that clearly appreciated the reference. "Lay It on the Line," "Follow Your Heart," "Magic Power" — by the time they arrived, the room had found that particular communal frequency, and the LED glow of a thousand raised phones told you everything about what the crowd thought of it. For a crowd that skewed older, the phones were everywhere. Nobody wanted to forget any of this.
The production design deserves an honest look. The show was big. Visually ambitious. But the spectacle leaned heavily on screen-generated imagery — LED walls and digital backdrops doing work that, in earlier eras, was handled by the thermonuclear heat of massive old-school lighting rigs. Anyone who caught Triumph on the Thunder Seven or Sport of Kings tours in the 1980s will remember what that felt like physically, the way the production assaulted your senses with something you could feel on your skin. The 2026 version was glamorous, carefully designed, and essentially weightless by comparison. Big and clean and somewhat cool to the touch. That gap between spectacle and sensation is the night's one real critique, and it's worth naming.
But Rik Emmett named it better than anyone could. Near the end of the night, he told the crowd why he came back — that there is something in this music that means something. That Triumph songs carry a weight beyond nostalgia, a positivity and a belief in people that he felt could still land, still matter. Watching him say it from the stage of a sold-out TD Coliseum, Phil X to his left, Gil Moore thundering behind him, a Hammer crowd hanging on every word — it was difficult not to feel the truth of it.
Canada is going through it right now. The cost of everything has climbed. The old certainties have gotten complicated and expensive. And into that context walked two Canadian rock institutions — April Wine, scrappy and alive and led by a frontman burning with something to prove; and Triumph, carrying 50 years of anthems about perseverance, magic and holding the line — and gave a room full of people exactly what rock and roll was built for. Not escape, exactly. More like permission. Permission to feel something large, something shared, something that costs nothing extra.
The night ended with "Fight the Good Fight." It always should. The guitars rang out and the crowd bellowed it back, and for a moment TD Coliseum felt less like a mid-sized Ontario arena and more like the centre of something. This tour will keep moving — Halifax, Moncton, Montreal, Ottawa and westward across the country, then down into the States through the summer. But something specific happened in Hamilton. The Hammer got this one right, and so did the bands. Canada's night. Every minute of it.
---
Triumph's Rock & Roll Machine Reloaded Tour continues across Canada and the United States through Jun. 6 in Boston. April Wine appears as special guest on all dates.
Triumph
April Wine
