Every band, just starting out, has had to make sacrifices in the name of fame. They’ve toured the country in 20-year-old vans with broken heaters, played the smallest and seediest venues, and plastered automobile hoods and corkboards with promotional propaganda, trying to get more than a handful of friends to show up at a club. These are the things dreams – and VH1’s “Behind the Music” – are made of.

When members of the Boston-based hard-core favorite Godsmack look back at their career in music, they might have one interesting tidbit on their resume that no other rock legend can claim: They played at Bumstock.

The annual University of Maine free-for-all traditionally has been more of an open jam session than a launching pad for platinum-selling artists.

But in 1999, the university’s Bumstock committee in hindsight staged one of the greatest coups in recent music history. It lured Godsmack to headline the event, smiting the hippie feel the concert traditionally held and replacing it with a sound so raw and edgy that UM was turned on its ear.

Since its ultra-high-energy stint in Orono, Godsmack, which derives its name from a song by Alice in Chains, has gone on to bigger things. Its self-titled debut album was three times certified to platinum status, and its second album, 2000’s “Awake,” has sold another 1 million copies and spent significant time on the Billboard album charts, peaking at No. 5. Oh yeah, the performance venues have changed, too.

Godsmack will return to Maine at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27, one night after launching a headlining tour of the Northeast, at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland. Joining them will be special guests Staind, Cold, and Systematic.

Although Godsmack has in the past struggled through periods of downtime and selling albums from the trunks of members’ cars, the 5,000 people expected to pack the Portland arena will by no means be the biggest sea of fans the band has played to in the past year.

Godsmack was honored by heavy-metal icon Ozzy Osbourne last summer when the band was selected to play on the main stage at Ozzfest, one of the highest-grossing metal tours of all time.

The band also opened for alternative-rock chart-toppers Stone Temple Pilots and played with fellow metal-hop pioneers Limp Bizkit on the highly successful Anger Management Tour.

For those unfamiliar with Godsmack’s repertoire, beware: This is not your father’s hard-rock band. Anger management counseling, rather than a tour, would have seemed better suited for the four-piece band, including blunt frontman Sully Erna, guitarist Tony Rombola, bassist Robbie Merrill and drummer Tommy Stewart.

Anger is the mold on which the songs on their two best-selling albums were formed. The band’s first Top 10 single, “Whatever,” reflected its disdain for, well, people. The second single, “Keep Away,” more or less mimicked the sentiments of “Whatever,” but changed the refrain.

“Do like I told you/Stay away from me/Never misunderstand me/Keep away from me,” Sully growls, making it plain that hangers-on, groupies and leaches need not apply.

While “Godsmack,” was commercially viable, “Awake” has been sounded as an overall improvement across the board. Praise has come from more than just the standard hard-core news sources.

“Having sold 3 million copies of its debut album, Godsmack has become the biggest Boston band since Aerosmith,” wrote Steve Morse of the Boston Globe. “The new album is another bone-crunching winner, filled with speaker-blasting hard rock, incendiary boogie riffs and Erna’s anger-cleansing lyrics.”

In the lyrics lies the key to Godsmack’s music. The albums and concerts allow listeners a release of rage that can’t often be found in everyday life. Nor can the lyrics be played aloud most places in everyday life. The name of the band’s latest excursion, the “Wake the F*** Up” tour, is typical of the racy language found on the band’s major-label releases.

Frontman Erna wasn’t willing to let the band rest on its laurels when it went to record “Awake” in the wake of “Godsmack.”

“This one’s a lot more aggressive, it has a bit more attitude and it’s a little angrier,” Erna said in promotion of the new album. He said the band set out to “kick a new a- in this planet” with the record, and he is taking pride in the product.

“On ‘Awake,’ we’re just more of what we were,” Erna said. “The writing matured and the aggressiveness is turned up a bit more. We have the same Godsmack groove, but this album is tougher, more raw, more in-your-face.”

Godsmack’s Portland show promises to be much like Erna’s description of the record and a more polished show than at Bumstock.

But, no matter how the band fares in the future, to the thousands that moshed to the anger-rock at Bumstock, there always will be the thought of “I remember when …”

Tickets to the Feb. 27 show cost $27.50 each and are available at the Cumberland County Civic Center box office, all Ticketmaster locations, or by calling 775-3458 or 775-3331.