this is a great discussion for once and thanks to posters for staying on topic. very good points made by many. I have seen both bands many times and as far as i'm concerned from a music perspective they couldn't be more different. the similarities lie in the scene and the attitude more than anything. it's hard to find a dead tune that relates to Phish and vice versa, musically speaking. i find a lot more similarities between Frank Zappa's bands and Phish than i ever did with the dead. take and listen to a zappa song like "Inca Roads" then play, oh say, "Harry Hood" or "slave to the traffic light" and you will see what i mean.

i think the backgrounds of Trey and Jerry were so different musically too. Jerry was much more structured and classically taught before the dead. he was using his music to make money right from the start with teaching guitar and performing. Trey came from a liberal arts school where the focus was much more on the spirit of music and a lot less structured. Jerry was teaching guitar lessons to kids while Trey was writing "gamehenge" at the same ages (roughly). wildly different attitude toward music right from the start.