Not that anyone will read this ever, but I had to chime in.

I've held for years the opinion that Mike is the key to most of the epic Phish jams over the years. Mike is a master of his craft and easily the best musician of the group.

He has an extremely sensitive ear and Trey relies on ideas from he and Page when it comes to jamming. More often than we would care to admit, when a show is "average" (by general consensus) it is because Trey did not receive ideas from those two, or failed to capitalize on the ones presented to him.

Trey is a very rhythmic and percussive player, while Mike is very lyrical. Trey likes to play in space, and often gets lost in his own chops and misses the cues from Mike until a phrase behind the signal.

By contrast, Jerry Garcia was a very lyrical player, while he was well-complimented by Bobby Weir, who like Trey, is a very percussive player. Bobby would create great space for Jerry to work in, with Phil creating melodic counterpoint at the bottom end seemingly (by experience) at the other side of the known universe.

Because of this dynamic (with the lead guitar being so lyrical, riding like a bird with pins over the top of the musical bubble), the Dead had a huge, broad and expanding tapestry by effect in their general sound. Having two drummers increased this effect.

Phish, because their lead is percussive, has more of a driving, compact, intense sound. Phish's sound, generally is far more urgent than that of the Dead, primarily due to the different styles of their lead musician.

However, what Phish has that the Dead didn't is a world-class drummer and keyboardist, which adds great complexity and subtlety to their music.

As a big Miles Davis fan, I will also add that we only talk of Type 1 and Type 2 because we're talking about a rock band.

In the world of jazz, if you say "type 2" folks will just look at you funny. "It's called jazz." they may answer condescendingly.

The Phish are the best.