@FACTSAREUSELESS said:
THAT BEING SAID.....I have an interesting little game to play;
to answer scooterpie above......Scooter, you challenged me to substantiate my claim that Phish is far better and more talented than the Dead, well, here you go....

Take this forum, and apply all the same criticisms that Phish has to endure regulary to your favorite Dead concerts. I challenge you to write a review to ANY Dead show, from any era (apart from '72, which would fare quite well), using the same standards that the pros on this forum use. Such as: SETLISTS, TYPE 2 JAMMING, FLOW, TIGHTNESS, FLUBS, SET-KILLERS, ETC. I challenge you because the truth is that Phish is so damn good that they've spoiled us. They play an "average" show, and we rip 'em with a fine tooth comb, yet even on average nights, they surpass the performances of some the Dead's all-time classic shows.

I can name only five songs in the Dead's history that they consistently went Type II with:
Dark Star (which, by the way, has no peer)
Playing In the Band
The Other One
Truckin'
Eyes Of the World

Type II, by the way, that largely stopped after 1974. You don't see Type II afterwards, you really don't. In fact, you want to talk about the GREAT PEAK of '77 ???? Oh, you mean that tour where they played Estimated Prophet EVERY SINGLE FUCKING NIGHT?!
You mean THAT PEAK? Want to talk about the GREAT PEAK of '89?? You mean the age of 45 minute first sets?
Flow??? How about Ship of Fools in the middle of the 2nd set? Talk about set-killers. Show of Life is a timeless anthem compared to that dirge.

And tightness? Anyway, I'm starting to get fired up. No Deadhead who honestly listens to Phish for given period of time (I mean HONESTLY), can come to any conclusion other than Phish just plain brings the goods. The Dead were great, but musically not in the same class.

Phish has jammed almost every song in their repertoire at one time or another, the Dead never came close to that.

..thanks for the thoughtful reply, @factsareuseless. you definitely have a point of view.And I will post a more detailed rebuttal later.

But in the meantime, I do beg to differ on a key point, though. To my mind and tastes, the fact that Phish "jammed" out to virtually every song in their repoirtoire is a weakness, rather than a strength (IMHO). I mean, don't you see it? No the dead didn't enter into a mind-numbing clusterF^$%$ of a jam every time they played "Cassidy" or "Cumberland" or ever "Big River",,but who wanted them too??? these were good "songs" straight ahead, no chaser needed.

I think this point can't be stressed enough. I believe the Dead excelled in this area where Phish did/does not.

I can think of countless shows from the mid to late 70's , early and late 80's and early nineties where they played sweet, compact, but powerful first sets with their cannon of songs which didn't require extensive jamming to prove their worth.