Precision, Palette, From Phish

The lost children of the Dead Head diaspora came from far and wide to see their new folk heroes Phish at the Greek Theatre on Thursday.

And the Vermont-based quartet in turn demonstrated why it has become the master jam band of the post-Grateful Dead era, turning in a performance that alternated technical rigor with feathery delicacy.

It’s too easy to dismiss Phish as a Grateful Dead facsimile. Unlike that seminal San Francisco band, whose free-form musical expeditions flowed from a sound steeped in folk and country music, Phish toys with genres that place a higher premium on virtuosity and improvisation--free jazz, prog-rock, fusion. That protean approach enables Phish to explore a more expansive palette.

At the Greek, Phish played with the kind of muscle and precision that the Dead could only dream about.

The group laid back and locked into loping, leisurely grooves on some songs, then jacked up the energy quotient on others with intense instrumental outbursts that were laced with tricky time shifts and jagged note clusters from guitarist Trey Anastasio.

Even when it downshifted into abstract, discursive jamming, Phish managed to hold it all together. No wonder Dead fans have embraced them.