Blimp Time-Hop: Guns N’ Roses Only Portland Show Ever

26 years ago today, Guns N’ Roses finally arrived in Blimpville! Their first scheduled appearance here was in August of ’88 opening for Aerosmith. But that didn’t happen. They were so huge by the time that summer rolled around, they started headlining and were replaced by a new Boston band called Extreme.

Guns N’ Roses made it right with their fans 4 years later, when they played their only Portland show ever on March 8, 1993. It was of course a sold out night  at the Civic Center on the Skin N’ Bones Tour.

And as if Axl, Slash, and Duff weren’t enough, the legendary Brian May of Queen was the opener! This was his first appearance in Portland since The Game Tour with Queen in 1980.

Nearly half the set was Queen songs!

Whoa now. Check out this picture of the Captain (Nice purple turtleneck!) and his buddy Dave backstage with Duff and Slash that night back in ’93.

Check out the G N' R set list from that historic night of ROCK in Portland!

The next night was in Hartford on March 9th. Here's a video of Paradise City from that show. The audio quality is actually pretty good too!

Seven days later they came back to Maine and played the Augusta Civic Center! This was their second and last Maine appearance. What a March in Maine back in '93...right!?!