Phish vs. Grateful Dead

EmperorKuzco

EmperorKuzco

Active member
Me and my friend are in a deep battle over which band is the best I say Phish he says Dead.
NS, who do you prefer?
GOO
 
as tempted as i am just to hate, I'm more just curious why you say that.... do you dislike jam bands in general or is it specifically jerry, and if thats the case. why?

also, just because a large amount of his songs are based off of basic chords certainly doesn't mean he sucks at guitar. he fucking ripper, and I think that regardless of you taste, it you know anything about guitar you can't disagree with that.
 
Phish and the Dead are both excellent, but I'll listen to the Dead over Phish any day— if I had to choose between them to see a concert, I'd go Dead every time. That said, there's a time and place for Phish as well.

Really, though, there are many better bands than each abovestated option.
 
I wouldn't say he sucks, his playing is just boring as fuh. His phrases are random notes on the scale seemingly without any ascending/descending progression, and his vibratos are lame.
 
trust me, I love jam bands. I hardly like phish either because they're so boring like the dead. JErry was only "fucking ripper" when he wasn't to lazy to be, and even then you compare his skills to some of the greats like clapton, satriani, or hendrix and he's just a smelly hippy who sucks at guitar. and yes I keep using the word sucks, he may not actually suck but when there's better music out there why listen to boring repetitive music?
 
This is the best reply I've seen on the thread yet and couldn't agree more. The two bands are very different from one another and bring forth totally different vibes, so I feel as though it's pretty difficult to say one is better than the other. For me, it totally depends on my mood and what I want to listen to. I saw Phish in Mansfield, MA last summer so that really strengthened my connection to them and their music, and I'm sure if I could see the Dead live right now it would do the same... maybe I'll have to look into seeing Further? Anyways to add onto what ThomaJoi. was saying, you definitely have to look outside of Jerry's norm.. check out some of his work while in the Jerry Garcia Band, he was really killin the guitar.
 
I got to see them in the fall in the seattle area. Downpouring rain and in the top 10 experiences of my life.
 
I was there too! I Know You Rider was just about the best moments of my life haha.

As far as this thread goes, I really agree with the fact that you have you look outside the norm of his work to see where he makes it obvious how talented he is. However, even in some of his simpler display's absolute mastery over chord progression and his ability to move between keys so fluently while jamming... This is all of course not even mentioning Bob Weir, who is flat out just a pure badass on guitar!
 
So you don't like the Grateful Dead or Phish, but you love jambands? You hoppin on bisco tour? I'm gonna go ahead and say you don't like jambands if you hate on Phish and Dead as being boring and repetitive.

But for the record, Jerry has more soul in his severed finger than Satriani could ever hope for.
 
I don't know why anyone would ever want to debate this. They're both epic and jam hard. Just listen to them in shifts : )
 
Considering he was one of the best pickers out there.

Also the jamming. So many shit bands out there could never think about jamming.

I would go GD for sure. I love phish, but easy choice on the dead.

 
Lol, boring repetitive music where no song is really ever the same? That's a pretty dumb thought on your side. My buddy got be and him backstage passes to see a few popular shitty bands of these days. We went to like 3 or 4 shows a few years ago, every setlist was the same, every song was played the same, even the banter was the same.

I'd call that boring repetitive music.

And slandypoo.

Lol at "rrandom notes on the scale seemingly without any ascending/descending progression, and his vibratos are lame. "

PeachCobblerU...

Go ahead and check out further. A lot of people knock them but they're pretty good. I mean It's a cover band with 2 og members, but they're playing well. "the dead" tours before that were hit or miss. For me further has been playing better. Still will never be gd though.

taj.$

Yeah but not in a while. Haven't seen them since fake jerry left. They put on a real good show. Sucks that the price jumped up to 40 bucks though. That was the only thing that kept me from seeing them again a couple months ago.

Willard "Grateful dead has a lot more music...phish does a lot of covers "

That's a terrible point.

Anyone who thinks jerry was a shitty guitarist sucks at music. Not saying you have to like the dead, not saying you have to like phish. Just saying that if you can't appreciate good musicianship you should cease posting about it.

And the dead phish comparison is just as dumb as many of the comparisons going on today

 
I'd say my statement was valid. Jerry was an extremely talented guitarist, but he just isn't my style. Jerry pioneered the jam band-style of jumping sporadically around pentatonic scales, rather than having a deliberate and climaxing movement embedded within. You can't deny that he had more of a stark flow to his playing compared to Hendrix or Gilmour, which is what I really mean.
 
Wow really? I would say you have it completely backwards. Jerry was known for his arpeggios and major scale runs, and he never played in pentatonic scales. The whole point of the Grateful Dead is deliberate climaxing movements, so I'm not sure what your point is there.

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As opposed to Hendrix who did jump around the pentatonic scale. Hendrix was a blues player who's entire playing style is jumping all over the place while in pentatonic blues scales.

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I'm not gonna bring Gilmour into this, because it's completely different. He plays composed solos and doesn't improvise like Jerry or Jimi.

 
I wasn't planning on bumping this thread due to the miserable hate on both bands. But this post was too good, and too on point to not to give recognition to.
 
Phish is pure GARBAGE. the Dead were very talented and their music lives on forever. fuck Phish and all their crunchy fans
 
i saw phish on new years day at MSG and they blew my mind. absolutely amazing show the vibe was perfect. i also just saw furthur in slc and it was also an unbelievable show. the deads music is great.

i enjoy them both, i dont know if i could choose one over the other.
 
the dead for sure. Ive tried many times to get into phish, but just cant. if someone wants to help me in my venture that would be cool
 
id have to research but id put money on phish having more originals than the dead. dead played lots of covers as well. phish gets my vote. waaaaayyyyyy better musicianship. way better jamming. any phish song has the potential to be a jumping off point for intricate improv that at tiimes sounds like a whole new song. gd jams either just riff on the same theme for fifteen minutes- ie an eyes of the world, or devolves into atonal arhythmic noodling, ie playin in the band or dark star. i do give gd the edge as far as lyrics go. i mean seriously, phish has what, like four songs that reference slicing nipples? i dont think phish will ever be as universal as gd. theyll never have a touch of grey. their music isnt quite as approachable. but for my money, im taking phish any day of the week. mike slays phil. fishman is my fave drummer ever. page pwns any keyboardist the dead had, with the possible exception of godcheaux. technically i think trey is the better guitarist, though jerry probably had more soul. phish for life!
 
download a live one, listen to the hood

10/31/94 reba

if you're not hooked after those, then i don't know what to tell you
 
i would honestly start with studio stuff before delving into their VAST live catalogue. try billy breathes, the story of the ghost, farmhouse, rift. all sick albums.
 
As a Phish fan I really don't understand why they made that song (I realize you're talking about the album, which IS rather good). Farmhouse is a miserable song though, like I said, I just don't really understand it.
 
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