The night was off to a bad start. I was late rolling into town and I had trouble finding the venue, located within Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. When I finally got there and made my way to the lawn, an announcement came over the PA instructing everyone on the lawn and terrace to go back to their cars and wait for the approaching storm to pass.
Back in the car, I watched the storm dump sheets of rain on the area, with lightning flashing and thunder cracking, and wondered if there would be a show at all, and if so, when the hell it would start.
Well after 9 p.m., the band's Twitter feed gave us the OK to head back to the venue, a typical shed ampitheater that seems to have a smaller lawn section than others, as the rain lightened and then ceased.
Maybe the venue security felt bad for us because they did not check tickets as I wandered to the outskirts of the reserved seating pavilion while Phish cranked out a spirited "Axilla" and a nicely funky "Gumbo". By the time I found a sweet spot with clear sound, a decent view, and plenty of dancing room (in the walkway between the pavilion and terrace), "Taste" was in full swing, followed by my new favorite Mike Gordon romp "555".
Variety seemed to be the name of the game for this first set, with 1980's oldies like the fun slow-funk of "Camel Walk" and a too-short "Halley's Comet", 1990's chestnuts like "Sparkle" (back in its usual mid-first-set placement) and "It's Ice" (flubbed in the middle, where it almost fell completely apart), the early 2000's highlight "Walls of the Cave" which closed the set with an amped up, ass-kicking jam (thanks partly to its huge F# buildup), and the more recent fare of an ecstatically peaking "Ocelot" and the soft-rock groove of "Halfway to the Moon".
Now way behind schedule, they kept the set break short and came back after 11 p.m. with a hard-hitting "46 Days" which was followed by what is clearly going to be the new era's major jam vehicle, "Fuego", once again eclipsing the 20-minute mark with spiraling jams and creative textures. Placing two songs with the word "Line" next to each other - the fun new "The Line" and "Backwards Down the Number Line" which always has a sloppy start but usually ends with rousing soloing by Trey Anastasio - was probably a consciously cute idea.
After 47 minutes, with midnight fast approaching, they hit the last chord of "Number Line" as if it would be the end, Chris Kuroda's lights flashing and whirling. I guessed we had to accept that the weather cut the show short. We still had more than two hours of music and most bands do not even give that much. As I was thinking that thought, Trey started up "Tweezer". Not only were we getting another song, but a notoriously long one.
But this is Phish, and the unexpected turns just kept on coming. It was the shortest "Tweezer" in years as Trey pulled the ripcord on it and crowbarred a baffling segue into "Ghost" which ended up being the better jam anyway. Most surprisingly, in this era of all-original songs, they fired up a delightful "2001", the first cover song of the tour (last cover was "Funky Bitch" at the 4/27 Jazz Fest show).
As if that was not enough, a sparkling "Harry Hood" gave us one more hot jam before "Tweezer Reprise" brought the show to an energetic climax at nearly 1 a.m. The "Possum" encore was standard-issue, almost unnecessary after what came before.
After a stormy start, Phish brought the real thunder to the Mann last night, my 104th Phish show and my first in Pennsylvania (bringing my Phish state total to 12).
Set list:
Set I: Axilla I, Gumbo, Taste, 555, Tube, Halfway to the Moon, Camel Walk, Sparkle, Halley's Comet, It's Ice, Ocelot, Walls of the Cave
Set II: 46 Days > Fuego > The Line, Backwards Down the Number Line, Tweezer > Ghost > 2001 > Harry Hood > Tweezer Reprise
Encore: Possum
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