Phish at the Mann Center, Philadelphia, PA, June 28

I was exiting a port-a-john when the opening chant of "Wilson" began, and I could not help but shout, "This party has started!" to no one (and everyone) in particular.  I had waited almost six months since my last Phish show and was ready to throw down.

Some venues are special when it comes to Phish.  According to Trey Anastasio, the Mann Center for Performing Arts located in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia is one of them.

Apparently, the band - already on the fifth night of summer tour after a great opener in St. Paul, Minn., but largely hit-and-miss shows in Chicago, Ill., and Noblesville, Ind. - was ready to throw down, too.  After "Wilson", they completed an opening one-two punch with "Funky Bitch", but the show really took off with the already classic "No Men in No Man's Land", getting booties shaking all around the unique Mann venue - inside the shed and on the lawn.

The first set also kept the fun coming with songs old ("Birds of a Feather"), new (the debut of the bluegrassy "Things People Do", sung by Page McConnell), borrowed ("Nellie Kane" and Trey's solo tune "Sleep Again") and blue (a quietly pretty "Roggae").  The complex grooves of "Limb by Limb" showed that Jon Fishman still has the stuff on drums and Mike Gordon dropped some big bass bombs in "Gumbo". "Birds of a Feather" kept the danceability high even without any big jamming exploration.

The latter was saved for "Split Open and Melt", a song about which I have complained numerous times.  But I am slowly being won over.  The SPAC version from 2014 started the turnaround and this one continued my appreciation for the newer, weirder "Melt" jams of the 3.0 era.  Closing with a classic "Oh Kee Pa Ceremony > Suzy Greenberg" combo (with Page raging on the keys) kept the energy high into set break.

Continuing the two-year tradition of playing "Fuego" at almost every venue on every tour, the non-stop second set was off to a great start, and even though the jams did not get stratospheric for the double-whammy of "Runaway Jim" and "Gotta Jibboo", it is a super treat to hear those two songs played together (and so well).  It was the new "Breath and Burning", in only its second time out, that took things up a notch - with its various modulations and extended room to move, leading nicely into "Timber" (the old one).  

If you want to see me make my Phish ecstasy face, look no further than "Slave to the Traffic Light".  When Trey plays a well-executed solo over that four-chord progression (essentially A-G-D-E, but modified), and soars to a glorious climax the way he did that night, I can not help but throw my arms in the air with my face in a permanent grin.  That would be the expected set closer because there is no way to top that, right?  

Boom - out comes the first "You Enjoy Myself" of the tour. Not only did they knock out all the parts beautifully with excellent peaks and valleys, but Trey took a turn playing the electronic percussion on Fish's Marimba Lumina.

Topping it of with an encore of "Quinn the Eskimo" was the icing on the cake and everyone seemed to leave the Mann satisfied.

Getting out of the venue was relatively easy, despite the all-over-the-place parking (which cost an inexplicably hefty $20), but there was construction at the Walt Whitman Bridge that had traffic stopped for an extra half-hour as I tried to get back to the hotel in Mount Laurel, N.J.  Not even that, though, could dampen the good spirits I felt from my first of seven shows of summer tour.