Years before Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion in Bangor, the Cross Insurance Arena (formerly the Cumberland County Civic Center) in Portland, and The Maine Savings’ Pavilion at Rock Row became the prominent concert venues in Maine, there was the Augusta Civic Center.

Built over the summer and autumn of 1972, the 49,000 square foot event center opened in January of 1973.  The main auditorium seats in excess of 5,000 people.  Additionally, it has a series of smaller, configurable rooms that can be used for corporate events, seminars, wedding receptions, and parties.

The most well-known performance (and almost performances) were the May 1977 concert by Elvis and the two concerts he was scheduled to perform in August, the first of which was to take place the day after he passed away.  But, Elvis was just one of the many artists to perform at the venue over its four decade history.


 

Some of the notable shows include:

Johnny Cash on March 16th, 1975 – The country legend known as The Man In Black was probably the first major artist to take the venue’s stage.

Aerosmith on May 5th, 1975 – A stop on their “Toys In The Attic” tour, they would have performed songs like “Walk This Way”, “Sweet Emotion”, and the title song “Toys In The Attic”.

Merle Haggard on September 17th, 1977 – As it was only a month after the passing of The King of Rock and Roll, it’s possible he did at least a few songs from his “My Farewell To Elvis” album.  An album of Haggard’s covers of Elvis’ songs.

Kenny Rogers on June 3rd, 1981

Alabama on June 25th, 1983 – Near the time of the release of their “The Closer You Get…” album, they probably performed “The Closer You Get”, “Dixieland Delight”, and “Mountain Music”.

Willie Nelson on June 21st and June 22nd of 1985

The Oak Ridge Boys on November 19th, 1987

George Strait on October 29th, 1989 – The concert took place between the release of his albums “Beyond The Blue Neon” and “Livin’ It Up”, so he probably performed “Ace In The Hole” and “Love Without End, Amen”.

George Strait Honky Tonk Time Machine
Rick Diamond, Getty Images
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Clint Black on August 11th, 1991 – Taking place at the height of Black’s popularity, he probably performed songs like “Killin’ Time”, “A Better Man”, and “Walkin’ Away”.

Alan Jackson on May 20th, 1993

Travis Tritt on May 13th, 1994 - Most-likely, he performed hits like "Foolish Pride" and "T-R-O-U-B-L-E".

Amazon
Amazon
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Reba on October 23rd, 1994 - She would have been touring in support of her "Read My Mind" album.

Reba McEntire Covers Aretha Franklin Respect
dahliacorona, YouTube
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Kid Rock on September 19th, 2004 – Coming several years after the release of his “Devil Without A Cause” album, he probably performed hits like “Bawitaba” and “Cowboy”.

Brad Paisley w/ Sara Evans and Andy Griggs on January 21st, 2005 – Part of his “Muds And Suds” tour, he performed songs like “Me Neither”, “Alcohol”, “Celebrity”, and “Mud On The Tires”.

Dierks Bentley on May 3rd, 2012 – Part of his “Country And Cold Cans” tour

Dierks Bentley
Jason Kempin, Getty Images
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Lee Brice W/ Dylan Scott on Mach 19th, 2016 - The show was in support fo his "I Don't Dance" album.


 

What concerts are missing the from this list?  What was your favorite Augusta Civic Center show?  Message us through our app or on Facebook.

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