Blimp Time-Hop 1980: Rush Warm-Up Moving Pictures Live At CCCC

40 years ago today, our favorite Canadian power trio (maybe even our favorite Canadians) rocked us live at the Civic Center.

Rush brought the Moving Pictures Warm-Up Tour to Portland, Maine on Rocktober 1, 1980.

We remember lots of acts selected the Civic Center as the place to do a 'dress rehearsal' or work the kinks out by beginning their nationwide tours here in the 80s and 90s.

Fans in Maine never seemed to mind being the guinea pig test market before these acts hit the big cities. We were just glad to be part of the tour. Ahh, those were the days my friend. We thought they'd never end.

This was the first of 3 appearances by Rush at the CCCC in the ’80s. The other two shows were on the Grace Under Pressure tour in ’84 and the Power Windows tour in ’85.

Permanent Waves brought in a new direction for Rush early in 1980, which included some reggae and new wave sounds as well as ushering the age of more synthesizers into their repertoire.

Blimpsters at this show heard new songs like Freewill and The Spirit of Radio for the first time live in Portland.

The band also previewed Limelight and Tom Sawyer  for Portland that night a whole 4 months before the release of Moving Pictures. I mean, come on. They even opened with 2112. Total Rock Nerdgasm!

Here's one of the 'new' songs Maine Rush fans were lucky to hear that night.

This behind-the-scenes official video features the band performing Limelight at their cabin in the snowy Great White North woods known as "Le Studio".