This is the next installment in my Top 25 PJJ tracks series for a year, which you can stream every track directly from Phish Just Jams. As with the previous installments, this is meant to be a list focused solely on the Phish Just Jams tracks from the year in question.


This is my version of the list for 2011. Since we've got 89 jam tracks from 2011, we're going with a top 20 list to keep it around the top 25% from a time period. I'm not suggesting that it is the definitive list and there are a few choices that I could swap out with others depending on the day. I'm not ranking these 1 to 20 but just presenting the list as a whole because really what difference does it make which jam I think is 11th or 8th or 23rd or so on. The purpose of this list is just to provide a Phish Just Jams playlist of the best jams from the year. The list will be presented chronologically and can then be parsed and dissected from there. The list will also link to the full version of each song from the terrific resource that is www.phish.in for those want to take in the whole song instead.

2011 was an interesting year for the band as they had now re-established themselves as a touring band and hosted their second festival of 3.0, the first one on the east coast and their initial visit to Watkins Glen. They'll follow up Super Ball IX with visits for Magnaball and Curveball looms on the horizon. The band reached peaks this year that standout among the better moments of 3.0, and the first time they reached such heights in this era. Jams like the Bethel Waves Soundcheck (shared by Kevin Shapiro) set the tone and the DTE Disease, Gorge Rock n Roll, Tahoe Light and the Storage Jam from Watkins that was the full realization of what came to (not coincidentally) be called the Storage sound that was featured throughout the summer.

But apart from those high points, they are still developing their approach and they aren't as consistent overall as they will be in time. Thus outside of the peaks the floor level for jams isn't as high. Still the high points are enough to carry the list so enjoy. The total run time is 4.5 hours and can be downloaded here and streamed here