Phish are pretenders IMO, although they certainly do have their following.

You are lucky to have been at Winterland. "The Last Waltz" was performed and recorded there. I assume you have seen it. The concert movie, directed by Martin Scorsese, consists of music footage interspersed with interviews with the performers. My favorite is an interview segment with Levon Helm, the intro to Paul Butterfield. He tells Scorsese that Memphis is where various styles intersect -- country, blues, soul. Scorsese asks if there is a name for this kind of music. Levon Helm, smiling: "Yeah. Rock and roll."

Eric Clapton brings down the house with "Further On Up the Road." What's amazing is he seems to do it effortlessly. So this is what he spent that year in England practicing after Blind Faith.

Van Morrison's performance was also unforgettable. Too many others to name.

>Never followed the Dead but certainly attending numerous concerts and even got to socialize once in Marin with mutual friends.
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>I don't listen to their recorded stuff much, but the live experience of their concerts was truly unlike anything else. A genuine "religious" experience (including a LOT of sacramental substances) The best were at Winterland, just because it was such a funky place to begin with - a wooden floor than vibrated, it was an old ice skating rink. I did hit the NYE concert 1978. Recommend the CD boxed set. I got to SF too late for the Fillmore shows.
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>The music isn't as compelling recorded or straight but what they did was truly something special and unique ( never got into Phish so I don't know how that compares )
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>>>What I love about that video, which I didn't even know existed, is it was recorded in 1968. They were a local band on the cusp of stardom. That's a story that never gets old.
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>>>As the great philosopher Eric Cartman (from South Park) would say, "it's all a bunch of tree-hugging hippie crap"
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>>I do not count tree hugging among my many faults. Do you not like the Dead? I will be happy to burn you a couple of CDs.
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>>They weren't really a hippie band, although coming from San Francisco in the 1960s it's easy to see why they might be perceived that way. They were a great band with great lyrics who practically invented the art of concert jams. Fans literally followed them around from show to show. That was unknown as well. The word Deadheads didn't come out of the ether.
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>>"Later that evening when the dealing got rough
>>She was too pat to open and too cool to bluff"
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>> -- "Scarlet Begonias"
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>>If you have listened to them and don't like them, that's one thing. I think you are speaking from a lack of knowledge. I defy anyone to listen to their music and not like them.