The hoards of people surging towards the gates of the venue at Camden – who knows the amphitheater is called this year – were ready for the show. They were screaming and whooping in waves, overcome with anticipation and the spoils of a glorious, sunny day on the lot at a Phish concert.

[All photos by Jeff Volckhausen]

It was the sound of the circus come to town, and it brought with it a smile – it was a sound missing at Jones Beach, despite how truly excellent those three nights were. Inside, the place was packed from the stage lip to the fences as Phish hit the stage running with Chalk Dust Torture, followed by a stellar version of Fee during which Trey flubbed the lyrics, started laughing and then joined with Page for a rich, deeply hued jam that grew and glowed organically, reds and purples across the stage and ember colors creeping from behind the cloud cover over the Philly skyline. It was unique, and a sign of things to come.

To start the improv in Wolfman’s Brother, Fishman set to dancing brightly, drawing everyone else into his groove. The guitar was lacing between Mike’s slapping lines, a clavinet spilling over top it all, and eventually Trey swung the lead up and cut loose, wailing to a shattering peak – the second in what would be a night of stellar thematic jams.

READ ON for more of Dan’s thoughts on Phish @ Camden…

Guyute, My Sweet One and a rowdy, kicking 46 Days carried the band to the middle of the set, where Trey again stumbled, this time over Lizards, forgetting all the thoughts that he had thunk. But that didn’t stop him from shining on Wedge, along with Mike who kept filtering up through the mix at moments expected and unexpected to take a dominant role in the set. Trey prefaced a requested Tube with banter about Springsteen at the ‘Roo (“Tuuuuube!” and “Bruuuuuuuce!” admittedly sounding similar). The tune was instantly a dense, rolling force of funk, taking its time taking its shape, and bringing it home. The band leader then mumbled, “Might as well play this one now,” before letting in on a big, swirling, chaotic First Tube to close the first long set.

The second set opened under a rising full moon with a monster, groundbreaking Sand. Right from the start it was moving at a good clip, and quickly ducked low into a slick network of interlocking caverns. Trey and Page were piling up overlapping sounds on the left while Mike and Fish were holding it steady on the right – excellent music for cruising through the crowd, bobbing and weaving through the masses.

The territory was expansive, far more open than anything that had preceded it over the course of the week, and the band was laying down long, long sonic textures. Eventually they ended up in a funky rhythm groove under drenched pink lights, with throbbing organ and a heavy low end. What followed was a series of shifting, thematic jamlets and crazy synth effects, all building up to a colossal climax, a set of descending notes so distinct it could have been composed, repeated over and over, reverberating across the crowd. Truly awe-inspiring, the culmination of a week’s worth of energy and anxiety and joy given form. And then Trey played on the theme again between the early verses of the following Suzy, albeit in a condensed form – seemed like an audio image that may just resurface over the course of the southern leg of the tour.

A pair of fugues followed, Limb by Limb sounding specially good, with Fishman’s cunning, deft drumming shining out early on, and the syncopation becoming nothing short of mesmerizing later – a song that produced a lasting afterglow. After Silent in the Morning, Mike debuted Sugar Shack, but the elements didn’t quite click – quirky was to be expected, but Trey’s overly cartoony latin lead seemed out of place with the funk the rest of the band was dishing out.

A short Character Zero rose quickly from throaty, phasey guitar into a rager before revealing Tweezer. The song bristled immediately, the drums exploding in colors complemented by Page’s keys – it’s amazing how quickly this band was able to get it back, how utterly electric and open the playing was, how far they had come in the single week between Fenway and Camden. Everything was locked up tight in a driving jam, every space perfectly filled as the quartet cultivated yet another distinct theme, this one carrying through the whole of the song – it was the ideal bookend to the Sand, especially as Mike began to lay down a barrage of shaking bass notes while Trey tore into the song with every increasing juice, powerhouse rock and roll plowing to the end of the set.

After a brief pause, the band returned, Trey asking, “You guys in a rush to go anywhere?” and then expounding on how great the tour has been so far and how they wanted to linger in the Northeast as long as possible. The extended encore began with Joy, a new song with the line “We want you to be happy,” which sounds far cheesier here than it actually was, followed by a really nice, welcome Bouncin’. And then the huge surprise of Antelope not just as an encore, but as the third song in the encore! It felt truly special, especially at the start as Fish led the charge from the playful intro to full blown rocking out. The tune stayed close to form, not stretching far over ten-minutes before the venue erupted in an ear-rattling Tweezer Reprise just shy of midnight.

From Tweezer to the Reprise felt a whole separate show, or like a third set, and the band buses headed south moments later, driving through the exiting masses who stopped and applauded and howled and cheered as they passed; headed south, leaving in their wake a path of aural, mental and physical mayhem. And huge, huge grins.

• YEMblog: Reviews, Audio, Video and more
• Hidden Track: Phish Summer Tour Coverage

Dan Alford

Dan Alford has been a contributor to Hidden Track since the site's first month of operation. He brightens the beginning of our week by sharing a Stormy Mondays mix from his huge music collection.