Blimp Time-Hop: David Lee Roth Rocks The Civic Center In 1988

33 years ago today, David Lee Roth returned to Portland for the second time as a solo artist. March 29, 1988, Diamond Dave arrived at the Civic Center on the Skyscraper World Tour. This was his 5th and last appearance onstage at the CCCC including 3 trips with Van Halen in 1978 (opening for Sabbath), 1979, and 1981.

Skyscraper was the second and last album with Dave's superhuman line-up of Steve Vai on guitar, Gregg Bissonette on drums and Billy Sheehan on bass guitar. Gregg's brother Matt played bass in videos and on the tour, replacing Billy Sheehan after he left to form Mr. Big.

WBLM was spinning the new song, Just Like Paradise. This album also gave us the Blimpville favorite, Damn Good. The opening band was Faster Pussycat who had a hit with power ballad, House Of Pain the following year.

Here's the list of what DLR and company played making damn sure March went out like a lion. There is one omission to note though. I was at this show and I'm pretty sure I remember Van Halen's Jump closing the night.

setlist.fm

The following week the Skyscraper World Tour stopped in Toronto Maple Leaf Gardens. Here's some surprisingly good quality fan footage of the ENTIRE show.

Check out the original video for Just Like Paradise featuring Dave showing off some insane rock-climbing skills!