Waxbanks, thanks for the very interesting read. A little background about myself: I have been listening to the Grateful Dead since 1983 or so, and Phish since 1988. I have heard most of the shows that both bands have performed. My first Dead show was in 1986 and first Phish show was in 1989. I was introduced to Phish's music by Deadhead friends. I saw a number of Dead shows before my first Phish show. As you know, I used to make a great deal of Phish tapes for people (including you) in the 1990s. I did the same with Dead tapes, though not to the same degree. Deadheads were primarily responsible for building my Phish tape collection at least from 1988-1995.

I believe that you're onto something with the Order/Disorder Phish/Dead improvisational characterization. I think I may agree with you on this score, generally speaking, which is of course the primary point of your piece. However, you really confused me by writing: "For the longest time it was enough to say that Phish couldn't do what the Dead did, and vice versa; for the first time, that's no longer entirely true. Phish have finally entered a phase where they can generate the kind of emotional intensity that the Dead naturally traded in."

What!? Fwiw, in 1989, after seeing Phish live for the first time, I stopped (ignorantly) claiming that Phish "couldn't do" anything that the Dead could do. I saw their potential to do everything the Dead were doing, and had done, even though I had not heard Phish do It yet. They were the best bar band that I'd ever seen at the time. It nevertheless took me several years to truly get "IT" with respect to Phish's music, but, of course, Phish had grown to become spectacular during that period.

That said, your statement that now, in 2011, "Phish have finally entered a phase where they can generate the kind of emotional intensity that the Dead naturally traded in" honestly shocks me. I feel like I must be misunderstanding you. You are talking about a band that, in the early 1990s, was routinely inspiring people -- much like the Dead had done -- to use-up all of their vacation time to go see as many of their shows as possible. Or to drop out of school and see as many shows as possible. Or to do anything to see as many shows as possible. Or, in my case, a combination of that and trying to HEAR as many of their shows as possible as well, and also, in effect, SPREAD THE GOSPEL OF PHISH as far and wide as possible by making copies of their shows for blanks and postage etc.

As far as I'm concerned, Phish was absolutely "generat[ing] the kind of emotional intensity that the Dead naturally traded in" in their music at least as early as Summer 1993, when I stopped seeing as many Dead shows as I could and started trying to see as many Phish *AND* Dead shows as I could... and then by 1995, I opted to go on Phish's Summer Tour in 1995 instead of the Dead's Summer Tour, something I have never regretted, in part because, as you know, in that month there was some spectacular music, including some improvisations in various songs (like Tweezer, Mike's, Jim) that -- as you suggest -- involved "experiments in purely Free jamming..." Phish's fan base was expanding exponentially in the early 1990s because, as I heard it, they were generating "emotional intensity" in and with their music (including their improvisation) that bedazzled and amazed.

Am I misunderstanding you? Are you really arguing that Phish is only today, in 2011, now "generat[ing] the kind of emotional intensity that the Dead naturally traded in" back in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and early to mid 1990s?