@Timber22

LOL. While we've been discussing the bands' respective music, Dead fans are definitely different than Phish fans, especially when it comes to dress code and "kit" (at least on the East Coast).

Phish fans may dress a bit weird in a costume style or Burning Man fashion, beads and such, but judging from Dead-o-centric festies like GOTV and Further, many if not most Dead fans are still back in the tie-dyed shirt hippy mode and lots of the GDP-licensed iconography -- the "stealie" face shirts, skull and roses, dancing bears, tie dyes, tapestries and on and on.

You see few tie dies at Phish shows. Phish merch, even lot merch, other than the one Phish "logo" shirt, has always tended to be varied and not a single look or handful of designs, like the GD. Phish kept a much tighter control over distribution too, only selling merch through Dry Goods online and venue concessions and not flooding the market through licensing so kids could buy the shirts in a J.C. Penneys or Spencers Gifts in any mall in America. And phans went for the obscure, like song title shirts, where the game was NOT to say "Phish" on the shirt or bumper sticker so only hipster insiders would know, not the po po, and the merch was not infringing on the Phish trademarks.

So there are business and cultural reasons that Dead and Phish fan taste in merch is different, but I'd agree that, like some of the reaction to these articles about the music, the Dead fans seem a bit trapped in time in the mid-90s in kind of a Rip Van Winkleseque way.

(I'm glad I enjoyed both bands a lot, the Dead in their day, but my feet are firmly planted in the Phish camp since '93 and I must say I do not find the various Dead cover bands exciting concert fare these days...there are some nuggets and pleasant

My last generalization is this: perhaps because there is no longer a possibility of Jerry playing, Dead fans are a lot more tolerant and appreciative of cover bands -- with or without original members -- and various spinoff projects (Ratdog) than Phish fans are tolerant of cover bands. I took a lot of guff from people during the hiatus by being a fan of Phix, a fantastic Phish cover band.

Dead fans seem very tolerant and appreciative of cover bands like Dark Star Orchestra, and they don't seem to get at all wrapped up in what Phish fans (I think) would tend to do, which is argue things like "DSO > Furthur?". And I noticed a lot more people at Dead fests like GOTV seem to be amateur musicians and be able to strum along and sing most of the classic Dead ballads.

OK, enough generalizations, stereotypes, cliches, etc. but there is some truth in this perhaps. But it's all in fun and not intended to be a big slam on anyone, just differences I've also noticed.