Recently I made another new playlist called Jam Session. This sequence is relentless. It's all live material. But a recording of good live material isn't necessarily a good live recording. There should be audience cheering at the beginning and end, but not excessive (or any, really) talking on either end. That would interrupt the momentum.

In addition, what makes a good live performance is worth a whole other entry, but briefly, a band should do something with the studio version, but doing too much is risky. On this version, Bruce Hornsby takes "Jacob's Ladder" to a completely different genre (from pop rock to the first feature in a bluegrass sequence), but Hornsby is an exceptionally talented musician. (When I saw Sponge at Coney Island High in the East Village in June 1996, they played a reggae version of "Molly," and it was just pretty lame all around.)

The Jam Session playlist:

1) "Mozambique" (Trey Anastasio, Plasma)
2) "Southbound" (The Allman Brothers, An Evening with the Allman Brothers Band)
3) "Jacob's Ladder"/"Blackberry Blossom" (Bruce Hornsby, Here Come the Noisemakers)
4) "Stash" (Phish, A Live One)*
5) "Off He Goes" (Pearl Jam, Live on Two Legs)
6) "Friend of the Devil" (The Other Ones, The Strange Remain)
7) "Marathon" (Rush, A Show of Hands)
8) "Martyr" (Rusted Root, Rusted Root Live)
9) "San Jose" (The String Cheese Incident, A String Cheese Incident)
10) "My Soul" (Phish, Live Phish 05)
11) "Limelight" (Rush, Different Stages)

* In the top 1% of all-time favorite songs; in the top 1% of all-time favorite performances of any song; in the top 1% of all-time favorite live recordings