April 3 2018 – RESolution9 is a Canadian band consisting of Dave Dunlop on guitar, Paul DeLong on drums, Steve Skingley on bass and keys, and Rik Emmett – the guitarist and vocalist of one of Canada’s best rock bands of all time, Triumph.
RESolution9 is essentially Emmett’s touring band and Skingley and Dunlop have been playing with Emmett for over 20 years now. DeLong has a very long list of projects he plays for but most noticeably he is Kim Mitchell’s drummer for all those mega hit records. Tonight the band performed at what was essentially a hometown show at Oshawa’s Regent Theatre – a fantastic old cinema originally built in 1919 with excellent sound and sight lines and a seating capacity of about 600.
As an aside; Rik Emmett and RESolution9 released a killer album in 2016 named RES9 – that album placed number 2 on our Top 10 Albums of 2016 year end article (which you can read here).
The setlist had 11 songs on it including 7 Triumph hits (8 if you include Triumph’s cover of Joe Walsh’s Rocky Mountain Way) and 3 RES9 songs. The 3 RES9 songs were Stand Still, Human Race (which the album version features Alex Lifeson) and End Of The Line (which on the album had Lifeson along with James LeBrie as guests).
The show began with a bang with the classic Triumph song Lay It On The Line that showed off the band’s ability with a spotlight on Emmett’s voice and guitar technique. Needless to say both were in fine form and we caught many in the audience high-fiving each other and nodding their heads in approval. The power of Triumph may have been diminished with their inactivity for about 30 years but anyone in the audience that was a rocker in high school between ’78 and ’88 was feeling it right about now.
Next up was a new song from RESolution 9 named Human Race that I am sure many in the audience thought was just a song from Triumph they hadn’t heard of before. Killer harmonies, beautiful build ups and strong riffs. Emmett addresses the audience after the song and states “that was a song off the new album, I can tell its a song from the new album, because there was only about 6 people that were going “oh yeaaa” ….“. That statement was not exactly true because people did really enjoy the new song despite the lack of familiarity.
Needless to say Emmett did another turn at old song/new song with Triumph’s Somebody’s Out There and RESolution9’s Stand Still (Emmett tells us it’s a song about “Canadian guy meets Texas rock. It starts a little like Billy Gibbons and gets Deep Purple in the middle“). During the band introductions in the middle of the two songs we also find out that Emmett is on a diet and now weighs 157 lbs – random fact but set the personal tone for the night.
The banter between songs was quite amusing and it was cool to hear members of the audience scream out “Rock and Roll Machine” both as a tribute to Emmett and a request for the legendary Triumph anthem. Emmett even jokingly acknowledged the fans by claiming he has totally forgotten how to play that song, and how it will not be performed this particular night. Emmett claimed “when you’re 64 years of age, unless you play them every week, they’re fucking gone“.
The band next gets deep into killer Triumph material with Allied Forces, Hold On, Rocky Mountain Way (jammed up with Zep’s Whole Lotta Love). As one can imagine the crowd reacted in a very positive way to Emmett’s musical journey to a time where most in attendance spent many hours in the basement with these rock masterpieces.
One final new song End Of the Line featured a great drum solo by DeLong which elevated the show with its old school tactics. It did seem lasers and smoke machines would have fit in perfectly. The night concludes with Magic Power and Fight the Good Fight. What can be said about that other than thank you Mr Emmett for still delivering the goods?
Tonight’s show was a single 90 minute set (which flew by way too quickly) with no opening band and no intermission. We would have loved another few Triumph classics this night (wishing for 24 Hours a Day, Blinding Light Show and of course Rock n Roll Machine) but the time we had with Emmett and gang was as memorable as always.
The really good news is that if you missed this show you have another chance to see Emmett very soon. On Thursday April 26th he will be playing the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts (we are not sure if this will be a RES9 show or an acoustic variety) but you can purchase some of the very few remaining tickets here.
Verdict: 5 out of 5 – Rock n Roll Machine!!!!! We will be going to see Emmett again in a few weeks at Richmond Hill – we highly recommend you be there.
Setlist for Oshawa March 31 2018
Lay It On The Line
Human Race
Somebody’s Out There
Stand Still
Allied Forces
Hold On
Rocky Mountain Way/ Zep Jam
End of the Line
Magic Power
Fight the Good Fight
