Triumph: Rock & Roll Machine
(Round Hill Music)

The Canadian rock and roll trio (no, not Rush!) Triumph, is certainly a Rock & Roll Machine, as is made plain in this documentary about them.

Directors Sam Dunn and Marc Ricciardelli, give us the full skinny, told pretty much by the band members themselves—drummer/vocalist/band creator Gil Moore, bassist/keyboardist Mike Levine and guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Rick Emmett—and some stone-cold fans, (and a few celebs) about how this band came into being and how they strived to always be bigger, better, louder and most showy…the very tenants a rock band should live by.

With some great live footage, broadcast commercials from the era (which are a hoot!) and lots of personal stories from ardent Triumph fans amassing as they do here at the tail end of the movie for a VIP fan fest held in 2019 at Triumph’s Metal Works studio, Rock & Roll Machine is pretty damn heartfelt, and delivers warts and all about three guys who certainly saw some amazing highs, and lots of lows.

And when Triumph surprises that small grouping of fans at the studio event by playing live before them, you can’t help but cheer for the sheer power of their playing these many decades later. They seem to be having a ball on stage with each other once again making their fans so deliriously happy.