Rik Emmett

I recently saw that a FB friend posted a pic of himself with guitarist Rik Emmett, taken last week after a performance at a local club. It triggered a full-fledged "holy smokes, where did the years go?" reaction.

Rik was the guitarist/singer in Triumph, a Canadian rock trio that Leo introduced me to in high school. We both had their album "Just a Game", and we played it a lot. FYI, the album sleeve actually opened up into a board game - and yes, we actually played the game a couple of times.

In the fall of 1979, Triumph came to the Tower Theater, and I went with my cousin Bethanne (the first of many concerts we attended together.) We were both fifteen (i.e., without driver's licenses), so we took the trolley into 69th St. It was my first concert at the Tower, and we were toward the front of the balcony - great seats. I remember the show as being very high energy. They opened with American Girls, which was one of my favorite songs from the album, and they rocked the house for two hours.

Then....

Another of my favorite songs from that album was Fantasy Serenade, a solo acoustic guitar instrumental that sounds almost classical. I can still remember Rik playing that alone at center stage - just in awe that anyone could play such an intricate piece, standing alone in front of an audience, without any fear of making a mistake. When he finished, the crowd roared, and he took the acoustic guitar off and tossed it through the air to a roadie offstage. Wow...could it get any cooler than that?!?

Seeing the picture of present-day Rik made me curious, and a little Googling showed that he is indeed still playing. Here's a clip of him playing Fantasy Serenade live in 2011, and he's as good as ever. I also couldn't resist looking up a tab, and I may take a crack at it (very very slowly, of course.)

Interestingly, in the intro to the recent live piece, he says he composed the piece while at Humber College, which I've driven past any number of times with Darling Wife in the west end of Toronto.

...and now.

Update: Darling Wife both attended Humber College, and knew of Triumph playing all over the T.O. area before they broke into the (relatively) big time.

It also occurred to me that it might be a long-shot, but maybe I could find some details about the 1979 Triumph concert I saw. Sure enough, there it is, October 19, 1979. Sadly, no set list. But the previous show (Oct. 13, Oshawa, ON), *does* have a set list. And it looks like the show I saw. Wow!