Calling all Deadheads! Crank up the time machine and reach back 45 years. The Stephen Inglis Project is bringing the Grateful Dead's 1978 "The Closing of Winterland" concert back to life on its Dec. 31 anniversary.
The local six-piece band will perform the iconic San Francisco show in its entirety — four hours of music — at upcoming concerts on Maui and Oʻahu.
Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award winner Stephen Inglis said the music resonates across generations.
"Probably the most concise way to put it is it's more like going to church than entertaining," Inglis said. "You look around the room when we're doing Honolulu Dead Nights, and there's not a single phone, eyes are closed, people are dancing, plugged into the music."
Inglis can pinpoint exactly when he became a Deadhead as a teenager in Honolulu. His older brother came home from a visit to the continent with live Grateful Dead albums and tapes in 1992.
"Aided by some other sacraments, I listened to some of this stuff, I'm like wow. It was something certainly different and it just grabbed me," Inglis told The Conversation.
Aside from playing live tribute shows, Inglis also reimagines Grateful Dead songs for slack key guitar. He shared a song with The Conversation from his 2018 album, "Cut the Dead Some Slack."
The Stephen Inglis Project will perform “Hawaiʻi Winterland: A Grateful Dead Experience” at Kihei Charter School on Maui on Dec. 30, and at the Hawaii Theatre on Oʻahu on Dec. 31.
"They played four hours-plus of music, going out at midnight and finishing up around 6 a.m. Four hours, not including the breaks. So we're doing the same thing, but we're not starting at midnight, we're starting at 5 p.m. on Maui," Inglis said.
"But Hawaii Theatre is going to be a 7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show, and we'll ring in the new year at midnight and probably play till 1 a.m. It's going to be a super super good time."
The concerts will feature Inglis, Eric Petersen, Steven Howells, Alan Okuye, Ginai Hill and Todd Yukumoto.
This story aired on The Conversation on Dec. 19, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. Sophia McCullough adapted this story for the web.
