Blimp Time-Hop: The One Time Guns N’ Roses Rocked Portland

28 years ago today, Guns N’ Roses finally arrived in Blimpville. They were scheduled to be here about four years earlier. That was in August of 1988 as the openers for Aerosmith. But, that didn’t happen. G N' R 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 dedicated fans, 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 their 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.

Check out all the great Queen classics he included with some new stuff from his 1993 solo album, Back to the Light. Looks like they meant to write We Are The Champions right after We Will Rock You. I was there for this and don't remember it being played twice.

Whoa now. Check out this picture of the Captain from the WBLM Morning Show (he's the one sporting that nice purple turtleneck) and his buddy Dave backstage at the Civic Center that night.

That's Duff lightin' a butt and Slash in a rare moment without sunglasses and top hat...what a photo!

Here's the G N' R set list from that historic night of ROCK for Portland, Maine.

The next night on the tour was in Hartford on March 9th. Check out video of Paradise City from that show. The audio quality is actually pretty good too.

Seven days later they came back and played at the Augusta Civic Center. This was their second and last Maine appearance.