Hey I like your site so much that I just bookmarked it….

You raise a good point: Phil never stated intentions to go long with any of his bands, and in interviews throughout the decade, his consistent message was that he enjoyed the thrill of, yes, putting a group together and seeing if it could wring out some magic.

I separate out these two ensembles from all of the other PLF lineups — you can count something like 20 different groups since 1999 depending on how technical you want to get about lineup changes — because each transcended the experiment and developed a real personality as a band. Each evolved and matured, so to speak, from its initial gigs.

By the time the Q went on the road in 2002, for example, they — at least to me — had a command, a chemistry and a groupthink more accomplished than any Dead group of the post-Jerry era. I don’t think they’ve been matched, by a Phil group or otherwise. It’s a chemistry thing: Q shows could be transcendent, and yet, when Warren and Jimmy both toured with the Dead in 2004, the shows often lumbered along and were just never quite fluid.

What I’d hoped to illustrate in picking the Q for a list like this is that something clicked about that collection of those five guys, with that setup, playing Dead music. I think the same happened, to a lesser extent, with the 2007-2008 group, too. I admire Phil’s determination to keep changing things up, experimenting with new combos because he believes the music can be served in infinitely variable ways. He’s also an old man; why commit to one grouping ever again when he spent nearly half his life doing exactly that and succeeding at it?

It’s more a selfish observation on my part: I got a lot out of both of these groups and part of me is sad I’ll never get to see either reach its full potential.