Agree/disagree with certain parts of the original post. I'll focus on the disagreements. Both bands obviously immensely talented, but Lesh and Weir should NEVER be labelled average, pedestrian, or whatever would you choose. Phil is one of the smartest musicians that's come around in the 20th century. He was on his way to becoming a bad ass trumpter until Garcia said, "Hey YOU - you're gonna be our new bass player!" Phil probably woulda imitated Miles Davis and launched a helluva career in jazz bands. Phil studied and worked with the best 20th century composers and writes his own symphonies. The Dough Boy even has conducted. And he CERTAINLY drives the band. He "invented" what many call "lead bass". LOL. Have you listened to Help > Slip > Franklin's (8/13/75 comes to mind), or "The Roll" into The Other One, or Passenger, or Scarlet > Fire, or...

OK, Weir is harder to defend. Known for NOT being the best slide player, not to mention a big spitter, Weir still played incredible counterpoint to Garcia, especially in 72-74 jams. There are Dark Stars, Playin in the Bands, Bird Songs, etc from that era that many people dig, not realizing that it's Bobby playing a role in a jam that they think is Jerry. Cool little jolts of spaceyness that Bobby laid down often get lumped with Garcia's mystique. And beyond that Bobby still was the MAN, especially once Garcia really started to decline (say '94 and on). Today however, Rob Eaton (Dark Star Orchestra) is the primo Bobby. But Furthur is a different discussion...

The jazz thing amazes me. I've read so much about Phish being labeled jazzier that the Dead, but after 3 or 4 years of listening to a LOT of Phish and finally getting to shows (after close to 20 years of Dead) I still hear MUCH more jazz in the Dead. It seems many say the Dead were more chaotic, spacier, whatever. Agreed. I hear much more real, 100% improvisation with the Dead that I do with Phish. And to me, that's what jazz is all about. The Dead's **attitude** toward music was more jazz that Phish is, even if there were cowboy songs, and country songs, and Dylan songs, etc in the Dead's musical bag. Plus, Eyes of the World with Branford? Pure jazz

Big DeadHead? Guilty as charged. But also a Phan for a handful of years now. To oversimplify the differences (which are not as important as the similarities, which include GOOD LIVE MUTHA F-ING AMERICAN MUSIC):

Phish: more composed, higher rock'n'roll-type energy, more off-the-wall lyrically

Dead: more improvisational, lots of midtempo, more rooted & ambigous lyrically

Ciao. Now proceed to the next show of whatever kind you can get to and ENJOY!