LEWISTON — The biggest concert in Lewiston’s history took place on Sept. 6, 1980, when the Grateful Dead came to the Lewiston Fairgrounds for the last concert of their summer tour that year.

Now, almost 33 years later, a Maine band that pays tribute to the Dead’s music will try to recreate the experience from that show in its entirety at the Franco-American Heritage Center tonight — minus the opening set by Levon Helm and the crushing traffic jams, of course.

Lazy Lightning has been performing the Dead’s music in Maine for nearly 20 years, but they’ve never duplicated a Dead concert exactly in the same way that another band called Dark Star Orchestra has made a living doing.

Louis Morin, who is not only the Franco Center’s executive director but also Lazy Lightning’s bass player, said the appeal of recreating the Dead’s only Lewiston show was obvious, despite the fact the audience will know the song sequence in advance. Song lists from virtually every show the Dead ever played are easily searchable online and posted on several websites.

“Of the thousands of shows the Dead played in their 30 years, this was one of the longest and by many accounts, one of the best,” Morin said, “plus it was the only show they ever did here, so how could we not play it even if everyone knows what’s coming next?”

Morin, who said he is not being paid for this performance, took over on bass after the band’s original bass player, Angelo DeRosa, died unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 48 in 2010. Other band members include guitarists Rodney Sturdee and Doug Emery, drummer Jeff Glidden and keyboard player Jeff Merrow.

The band will start sometime between 8:30 and 9 p.m. in order to have enough time to perform the full three-anda half hour show, with a break in the middle. Morin said the band even plans to include an abridged version of the “drums/space” portion of the show consisting of a drum solo followed by improvisational, atonal noodling that became a staple of the Dead’s second set.

Tickets are $5 in advance and $7 at the door.