POP MUSIC REVIEW : Rik Emmett’s Guitar Work Is Triumph

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO —  “I just ripped one of my fiberglass fingernails,” said guitarist Rik Emmett with a grimace, about a third of the way through his early set at the Coach House Wednesday night. “You ladies will sympathize with me.”

His predicament was one that only could befall a musician who uses every means at his disposal to coax interesting sounds from his instrument. Indeed, during his one-hour, 35-minute set, the former member of Triumph--changing guitars more frequently than Stevie Nicks changes costumes--ran through a cornucopia of styles that ranged from the jumbo jet sonic blast of his opening number “Straight Up” to delicate, near classical finger picking on an acoustic.

During “Big Lies” from his 1990 solo debut album “Absolutely,” Emmett even dropped to his knees at the front of the stage to let the folks in the front row run a pick over his fretboard while he elicited incredible feedback noises.

For all his antics, however, Emmett never allowed his set to degenerate into mere noodling or producing weird sounds simply for the sake of showing off. Except for a couple of instances, all his assorted riffs, whines, growls and solos were tied tightly into songs that never flew far afield of melodic mainstream rock. He would sing a verse and answer it with a guitar passage that extended the emotion expressed in the lyric.

The 13-song set included selections from both his solo albums (“Absolutely” and the newer “Ipso Facto,” which is available only as an import on the Canadian Duke Street label) and such Triumph staples as “Hold On,” “Lay it on the Line,” “Magic Power” and “Fight the Good Fight.”

Stripped of the arena rock megatheatrics that were Triumph’s forte during its heyday in the early ‘80s, the songs served more as vehicles for Emmett’s musicianship than they used to back when they were offered up as fist-waving anthems.

If it ever could be said that Triumph had a face, it would certainly have been Emmett’s; he was not only the guitarist but the singer and one of the principal songwriters. But, like so many arena rock bands of the last decade, the Canadian power trio really didn’t have a face, and when Emmett left in 1988, he found himself practically in the position of a beginner. His American record company dropped him when the sales of “Absolutely” didn’t meet expectations, and he now plays in small clubs to less than capacity crowds.

Wednesday, though, he seemed to be thriving on the situation. The erstwhile lord of the arenas was as adroit at capitalizing on the intimacy of the room as Triumph had been at inventing special effects for huge halls. The cozy setting of the Coach House allowed Emmett to deliver his songs with more subtle expressions: He would raise his eyebrows to emphasize a breathtaking run up the neck of his guitar, or punctuate a power chord with a playful thrust of his hips.

Emmett was nevertheless so commanding on stage that his three-piece band (drummer Randy Cooke, bassist Steve Skingley and keyboard player Marty Anderson) seemed to blend into the background (the only time one stepped into the spotlight at all was when Skingley soloed on fretless bass during “World of Wonder”). Still, it was their seamless playing that provided the solid basis for Emmett’s solo flights.

Emmett will be at the Ventura Concert Theatre tonight and at the Strand in Redondo Beach on Saturday.