I always felt Lesh's playing was extremely untechnical but brillantly intuitive in a ornette coleman sorta way. Worked great for the band but never drove the music like Cactus. The Dead always lacked a solid player on the keys and they always did have trouble performing those beautiful vocal and acoustic arrangements from Workingmans/American Beauty. The main simlarity that always struck me when comparing the two bands was simply their approach to musical experience. For the longest time I arranged the bands in my head as extensions of the jazz world, just with rock instruments. The Dead always felt more free form and Phish more along the lines of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew only with a marvellous sense of humour. Both bands let their tunes germinate, grow and sometimes crash in front of their fans which makes them both a lot braver than many acts and both went through such long reaching transitions both musically and emotionally and sometimes the result was painful for the audience and im sure the bands. I've never been a big fan of anything the Dead did after the around 85' but Phish still commands my attention even after 25 some odd years of playing and it still feels like they have other mountains they can climb. Damn fine piece waxbanks, keep it comin'.