Music almost always makes me happy, but a true “feel-good” song gets me in a really great mood. Whether it’s the Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun, U2’s Beautiful Day, or perhaps the ultimate feel-good song, Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World. These types of songs all have the power to completely adjust my attitude and remind me of all the things I’m grateful for.
I especially love musicians or bands that focus on positivity, like the band Journey. For me, seeing Journey in concert is one of the greatest all-around experiences. I love the entire concert, and I walk away from every show feeling joyful and energized. There’s nothing like the experience of live music. But when that music is positive, it completely amplifies the experience.
Aside from Journey, there’s another predominately 80’s band with a powerful positive vibe that many people probably haven’t heard of. Actually, I might not have known about them myself if I hadn’t seen them in concert thirty years ago. But what led me to see this band was their opening act. So that’s where the story begins…
Expanding our Music Collection
The first month of my sophomore year in college was an interesting one. My roommate, Wooly, and I had become good friends our freshman year, initially based on our similar (and awesome) taste in music. Over the following summer, we both significantly expanded our music collection, focusing primarily on hard rock and heavy metal. So during that first month of school in the fall of ‘86, we were constantly listening to our most recent additions. One of Wooly’s discoveries was a young Swedish guitarist named Yngwie Malmsteen.
Yngwie (pronounced ‘ing-vee’) had a bizarre style that combined his background in classical music with his passion for heavy metal. In fact, a new subgenre of heavy metal music was eventually created in the 80’s, primarily due to Yngwie, called neo-classical metal. But the main thing about his music that blew us away was the speed at which he could play. It was so fast that you almost couldn’t hear the individual notes. We’d never heard anything like it before.
Yngwie’s first solo album Rising Force, was named Best Rock Album by Guitar Player magazine in 1984 and was later nominated for a ‘Best Rock Instrumental’ Grammy. By the time school started in September of ‘86, Yngwie was just finishing off his third album. We were lucky to discover that the tour in support of the his new album had a stop in Minneapolis, just a month away. He would be the opening act for another 80’s hard rock band. We bought tickets immediately. Another college friend joined Wooly and me for the show. We were pumped.
The Day of the Show
The Yngwie concert fell on a Wednesday night. But being students, this wasn’t a problem. We each had only one class on Thursdays, all conveniently scheduled during the afternoon. So we were determined to make the most of the evening.
The show was at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, a short 30-minute drive from our college town of Northfield. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that we stopped at Applebee’s for dinner on the way. That’s not very cool, at least for 20 year-old heavy metal fans. But hey, it was an early dinner and we didn’t have many options. Our priority was to make the most of the tailgate party at the Met Center.
Of all the concert venues I’ve been to, nothing compares to the crazy atmosphere of the parking lot at the Met Center (home of the Minnesota North Stars), and its next-door neighbor, the Met Stadium (home to the Twins and Vikings at the time). These two parking lots turned into one single giant party prior to every concert or sporting event. There was very little security or supervision. Basically, anything could happen and no one was surprised.
Sadly, those classic venues are both long gone, with the Mall of America now sitting on that hallowed ground.
On our way to the show, we stopped at a liquor store to purchase the ingredients for a small batch of Kamikaze shots – our latest obsession. Then we found a perfect spot in the parking lot and listened to Yngwie Malmsteen while enjoying our shots. Looking back, I’m not sure why we thought this was a good idea. But…we did have a really great time tailgating, along with a couple thousand others. We made friends with our fellow paryting hard-rockers, tossed around a football, and got fully psyched for the show. Yngwie was the opening act, so we were determined to make it inside the arena in time for the show….as tough as it was to leave all that fun behind.
Once in our seats and all hyped up for the big moment, disaster suddenly struck. One minute our friend was fully alert and having a good time. Then the next minute he was bent over, depositing his dinner on the floor between his feet. Apparently those kamikaze shots didn’t sit well in his system. Bummer.
Wooly and I weren’t sure what to do. Should we find a custodian to clean up the mess? And what do we do with our friend, who suddenly couldn’t keep his head upright? We definitely didn’t have enough time to get him back to the car.
A solution to our predicament miraculously appeared out of nowhere, in the form of volunteers wearing jerseys that read “The Pharm House” on both front and back. They let us know they were responsible for handling concert-goers that got a little too enthusiastic with their pre-concert partying. These nice folks quickly escorted our friend away. They handed me a card detailing how to locate him after the show, and then encouraged us to find some new seats. They also assured us our friend would be just fine, and no authorities would be involved. Perfect!
While this was a sudden and unexpected development, Wooly and I went with the flow, determined to make the most of the evening. We found a couple of empty seats nearby just before the lights went down.
The Show
Yngwie hit the stage with a blast of lights, fire and sound. He blew away the entire crowd, right from the first note. Those who attended the concert primarily to see the main act that night seemed especially surprised by this wild young Swede and his bandmates. Yngwie’s fingers zipped along his guitar frets at lightning speed, while performing all sorts of tricks and stunts. I’ll never forget watching him whip his guitar around his back by its strap, then grabbing it as it returned in front of him, without missing a single note. It was almost like a magic trick. We were totally mesmerized.
The only downside to Yngwie’s set was that the second the lights went out, the smokers around us came to life, in full force. They weren’t smoking cigarettes, either. I remember both of us feeling a bit light-headed as we made our way to the concession stand during intermission.
Reunited
At the end of the night, Wooly and I followed the directions on the card and located the closest Pharm House volunteer. He took us through a labyrinth of non-descript doors, stairs and hallways. After a while, we were wondering if we’d be able to find our way out of there.
Our tour of the arena’s mysterious underside finally ended in a room adjacent to the North Stars’ dressing room. The lights were dim, but we could see the room was filled with dozens of rubber exercise mats laid out on the floor. On each mat laid a concert-goer who had crossed the line partying that night, along with a giant empty popcorn bucket next to their head (just in case).
We quickly found our friend, who was awake enough to recognize us. He sat upright slowly, with a slightly embarrassed grin on his face. The hair on one side of his head was flattened, so we could tell that he’d taken a nice little nap while we were rocking out upstairs. We were relieved – he seemed to be just fine. There were several others in much worse shape.
Amazingly, we found our way out of the arena and located our car. By then, most of the concert-goers had already departed, leaving few cars and little traffic for us to deal with. Stopping for a quick late-night snack, we made it home safely to Northfield shortly after midnight.
Blown Away
Of course that’s not the end of the story. I intentionally left out the part about the main act that night, which it turns out was the positive 80’s band I mentioned earlier.
In spite of our excitement for seeing Yngwie perform live, and all of our other adventures that evening, what stands out most when I look back on that night was the main act.
They were a Canadian trio named Triumph.
Though they were primarily a hard rock band, many of their songs had a softer side. And while most hard rock bands were writing songs about death and destruction, or sex and drugs, Triumph was different. Their message was positive, and their songs were as beautiful as they were hard. I was blown away.
Surprisingly, I knew almost every song on their set-list that night, and I really enjoyed the ones I didn’t already know. That rarely happens for me. How could it be that this band was around for ten years, with all these hits, and I wasn’t aware of them? Somehow they had flown under my radar. Looking back, I think I might have confused them with the band Autograph. They were another popular hard rock band at the time, but with only a couple of hits. I guess the bottom line is that with all of our focus on Yngwie, the main act had been simply over-looked.
My very favorite moment of the concert came during the song Magic Power. The chorus of the song goes “I’m young, I’m wild, and I’m free. I’ve got the magic power of the music in me.” Can you imagine the enthusiasm from the crowd when we were asked to sing along to this part? The crushing sound of 10,000 young and rowdy fans screaming out what they wholeheartedly believed to be the absolute truth, was something I’ll never forget.
I still think of that moment every now and then as I ponder the passing of time, and what it felt like back then…to be so young, wild and free. It was a perfect moment in time.
An Instant Fan
During that show, I became an instant Triumph fan. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on some of their music. Over the next 30 years, Triumph slowly became one of my favorite feel-good bands. Their music is a little heavier than your typical feel-good band, and occasionally the lyrics can come off as a bit cynical. But listening to their songs I can’t help but feel uplifted and inspired. There’s also something about the power of a hard rock band that makes a positive song feel so much more impactful. It’s a great combination.
You don’t even have to listen to Triumph’s music to recognize their positive influence. You can see it in their song titles:
Follow Your Heart
Fight the Good Fight
Never Surrender
Hold On (To Your Dreams)
Lay it on the Line
Somebody’s Out There
And then there’s my favorite, Magic Power.
This song is Triumph’s definitive positive anthem, like Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’. The music alone inspires me, but then I listen to the lyrics. Typical of their songs, challenges in life are well-noted, but are always triumphed over in the end.
“The world is full of compromise
And infinite red tape
But the music’s got the magic
It’s your one chance for escape
Turn me on, turn me up
It’s your turn to dream
A little magic power
Makes it better than it seems
I’m young now, I’m wild now, I want to be free
Got the magic power of the music in me”
Music like this is the exact reason why I created this blog – to acknowledge the songs and musicians that so beautifully celebrate this wonderful world we live in. They inspire us to do more. To be more. And to live more fully.
We all need a little motivation and encouragement at some point, and music is the perfect means to accomplish it. Like this song suggests, there’s definitely a magic element to music.
Let’s take a little trip back to 1981, with Triumph’s official video for Magic Power. By today’s standards this video might make you laugh, but I’m sure the special effects were considered top-notch back then. I hope you’ll find the song as enjoyable and uplifting as I do.
Thank you, Triumph, for creating such fantastic music and for spreading your positive message. You’ve definitely done your part to make the world a better place.
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