Blimp Time-Hop: J. Geils Band Shake Portland On Love Stinks Tour

41 years ago this week, the mighty J. Geils Band returned to shake the Civic Center for the second time. It was on the Love Stinks tour and it was the first of many sold out 80s shows here in Portland on May 2, 1980.

The band was unquestionably one of the greatest live acts of 70s and early 80s. That is because of the incomparable assemblage of Stephen Jo Bladd on drums, Magic Dick on the 'lickin' stick', Danny Klein on bass, Seth Justman on keys, J. Geils on guitar and on lead vocals and sick dance moves, Peter Wolf.

The title track lamenting relationship drama that we all encounter at some point in life and a track called Come Back that begs for the return of lost love, were getting plenty of spins on WBLM.

Check out the official music video for Love Stinks. I might have start wearing one of those badass gas masks instead of my tie-dye face covering when I go out for groceries.

Here's a lip synch performance of Come Back from what looks like on a some unknown TV show. Peter's kinetic, frenetic energy makes him a front man like no other.

We after all, always thought of this band as our own. If you wanted to hear the Woofah Goofah on the radio in Maine, you always tuned into the Blimp.

Of course we listened to Love Stinks on the turntable at home after school too. Usually while chowin' down an entire mixing bowl of some sugar cereal soaked in milk. I’m also pretty sure I copied the album from vinyl to cassette so I could listen to it on my little boom box strapped to my Schwinn. Love my Geils!

Being from just down the road from us in Boston, The J. Geils Band has always been popular up here. They’ve shown their appreciation by being very good to us with lots of shows over the years.

We count 14 times that they brought the 'Houseparty' to Blimpville from 1971 in Waterville to their last one 2015 on the Maine State Pier.

Peter Wolf kindly gave WBLM a shout-out during the updated opening rap of Must of Got Lost in the encore at that show. It's always been such a Blimpy tune, so we were blown away by the honor of being part of the show that night.

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LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.