Blimp Time-Hop: Permanent Vacation Tour Stops Again In Portland

32 years ago today, Aerosmith rocked a sold out show at the Civic Center. It was the Permanent Vacation tour still raging on. This was the second stop in Portland on that trek, near the end of the year long outing. The Permanent Vacation tour first came to Portland in October of '87, just after it got started.

We remember Guns N’ Roses was scheduled to open this Portland show on August 19, 1988. As fate would have it, they became headliners that summer and were all done as a warm-up act from then on.

A new young band also from Boston called Extreme that we've all known and loved for years now was added in place of Guns N' Roses.

WBLM was spinning this asskicker in the summer of 1988.

After Aerosmith pummeled us real good here in Southern Maine, they headed north for a two-night stand in Toronto on August 20 and 21.

It highly likely the set that Aerosmith those nights in Canada were the same or very close to what they played on August 19 in Portland. Unfortunately we can find the list for for the Civic Center show.

Here's a very cool capture of the entire show from the second night in Toronto.

The official WBLM count of Aerosmith shows in Maine is 22. Their first appearance here was in nearly 47 years ago at USM.

That last time Aerosmith brought the party to Maine was co-headlining with Kiss in 2003 at the Civic Center.

Hopefully it'll be safe enough to take the show on road for a proper tour next year. We haven't seen Aerosmith live in Portland in over 15 years and fans here want to celebrate the band's 50 plus years. It's been way too long for a band we worship that's played Maine over 20 times since 1973 ..just sayin.

Check out this treasured pic from my personal collection at the Augusta show in December ’87.

That’s my wife (girlfriend at the time) Sherry and me (in the Mickey shirt) along with our Augusta peeps, Shannon Kenney (next to Sherry) and Brian Rouillard. And oh yeah, (left to right) Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer, Brad Whitford, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Aero FREAKIN’ smith!!

Cheer up, Joey.

By the way just before the photo was taken, I greeted Steven Tyler with a “Hello, nice to meet you” …he responded, “Whoa, you gotta radio voice.”

To which I commented, “Whoa, you gotta screamin’ demon voice.”

Thanks Steven, I bet you say that to all the DJs. But, there is only one voice like yours.