August 22 2013 – Lockport NY, a town of 20,000 people which is located half an hour drive east of Niagara Falls has a fantastic free summer concert series known simply as the Labatt’s Canal Concert Series. Friday nights some major acts play the outdoor stage and draw anywhere between 5 and 10 thousand people. Puddle of Mudd, Theory of a Deadman, Kansas, The Pink Floyd Experience, Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience, and Everlast are some of the names that played the 2013 series. For us the big one that made the 2 and 1/2 hour drive (each way) worth it from Toronto was Rik Emmett. Emmett is the guitarist and one of the vocalists in the mega group from Toronto – Triumph! To add to the allure, the opening act was D Drive – which features Phil Naro on vocals (Naro has become the most reviewed artist on T-Mak World, probably because he is in like 100 different bands throughout the area). We gave D Drive a full review of their own right here so check it out.
We interviewed Emmett and his musical partner Dave Dunlop last year ahead of their show in Toronto’s Sound Academy (reviewed here). The review conclusion summarizes how good Rim Emmett and his band are – “The very full Sound Academy saw a level of musicianship that is very rare these days. We had very high expectations for this show when we walked into the venue – not only were they met they were blown away… thank you for taking me on a euphoric musical journey!” We also saw Emmett a few weeks ago at the Lakeshore Mardi Gras Festival here. Note – the pictures used in todays article are from the Mardi Gras show. The reason is we were using all four of our cameras to record video – check out the end result we are very proud of it.
Lockport got rocked to its Canal and tonight Emmett and his band took no prisoners. A relenting assault of rock radio staples (primarily from Triumph but some covers and Emmett originals) was the perfect backdrop to this late summer evening under a bright moon. There was a clear fault line dividing the audience with a majority up against the stage being Triumph fans that sang along to all the hits, at the back were the town locals that came out for a few beers and to check out who the musician playing was. The fault line became invisible by the end of the show as one big mass of people were swaying to the sound.
Dave Dunlop is as instrumental in this band as Emmett and with his fierce guitar skills was an equal to the five string assault that was delivered. Joining Emmett and Dunlop in the band are Steve Skingley on bass and Tom DeLong, playing his third show with Emmett, on drums. As expected the level of musicianship from Skingley and DeLong was off the charts and this is a rock band that should be selling out arenas if they were to produce some new chart topping hits.
Verdict: 5 out of 5 – A 5 hour total drive was totally worth it to see this band on a warm summer night with a Labatt’s in hand in NY state. Do not ever miss the chance to see the Rik Emmett band.
Set List
Lay It On The Line
Somebody’s Out There
Rocky Mountain Way
Whole Lotta Love (ending)
Allied Forces
Ordinary Man
Layla
Three Clouds Against The Moon
Magic Power
Encore
Fight The Good Fight
