Here’s Every Classic Rock Band Ever At The Old Bangor Auditorium

The first rock show I ever saw at the old Bangor Auditorium was Queensryche. Grunge hadn't quite exploded yet, and hair metal was still kind of king. Although you could sense change was in the air in general. In fact, the morning I got my Queensryche tickets, was the first time I ever saw the video for Smells Like Teen Spirit.

When we were young. Even the bands...

It's funny to think of all these acts as classic rock at this point. When they all came to Bangor, it was when they were fresh and new. For instance, Ozzy came here on the Blizzard of Oz tour, with Randy Rhoads on guitar. Crazy right? Until you realize the opening act was a relatively unknown band at the time, called Def Leppard.

Or when Kiss came to town in their heyday. Or Uriah Heep. Or Loverboy with Donnie Iris. Bangor was literally a concert hot spot all through the 70's and 80's. A lot of it had to do with the fact that the Cumberland County Civic Center, as we all grew up calling it, didn't exist quite yet. That wasn't finished until 1977.

The end of an era.

Obviously, the Bangor Auditorium is long gone. But hardcore, old school Bangorians will never forget. In the same way that we we all still call Hannaford's Shop & Save, we all secretly want to call the Cross Center the same thing. And fitting that instead of re-naming the building an upgrading, they tore it down and started anew.

Really, you can't replace an old gem like that. Sure, it didn't have the best sound in the world because of it's ummm...well, unique shape. It looked like a skate ramp for old Paul Bunyan. I, for one, miss the old auditorium. So let's check out every classic rock band, and when they played there....