Well I gotta through my chips on the table, even if ya' hate me for it. Personally, I love Phish, and am also a HUGE fan of Trey (though can't bring my self to fall into the "ph" cliches like "phan"). I would say - as I believe I have the right to after tons of Phish listening - that all the members of the group are extremely talented musicians, and that they definently know how to jam and how to play. Although there "antics" such as the aforementioned trampolines and vacuum cleaners may seem childish, I do thing they are also quite good entertainers.
As far as not liking Phish, I can understand where people are coming from (especially non-musicians), because Phish has been known to often go off with obscure chord changes and throw in odd little musical flourishes. Another reason that they turn some people off is that the band members start having almost TOO much fun on stage and will carry things on for longer than most people can handle. It is my personal believe that half the time they are just playing for themselves, and not to there audience, and us musicians know that when you play for yourself you are bound to get very creative, wierd, and occasionaly repetetive.
Now, on the matter of Jerry vs. Trey, Phish vs. the Dead, I don't think it is really fair to try and draw too many paralells. I will say that Phish is obviously quite influenced by the GD, as is apparent in there love for long extended jams, interaction between musicians, playing as one, and getting the crowd really into the show. Those factors (among a few others), I believe are what lead us all to classify bands into the "jam band" genre (which is quite a loosely defined genre, it even a genre at all). I think all else aside, the main similarity between the Grateful Dead and Phish (and SCI, Widespread, Umphrey's, Bisco, moe., ect.) is there ability to make people feel good, like they are really part of the music that is happening, and that is a great thing.
But when it comes down to it, which groups you are into is neither here nor there, because what you like is not really anyone elses buisness, or at least not there buisness to tell you what you should or shouldn't be into. Its up to you to decide what you like, I just don' think that anyone should go around bashing a person or a band without truely understanding there music and there scene.
Thanks if you took the time to listen to what I had to say. This is really a fun thing for me to talk about, so I hope you got something out of it
too much! 
Where did you hear that??? 
