Despite what many devoted lovers of Bon Iver’s first album, For Emma, Forever Ago, may believe, Justin Vernon and his nine band members most certainly “did not lose it in the stacks.” Quite contrary, their mind-blowing performance at The Mann Center in Fairmount Park this past Sunday left many audience members, including myself, in tears.

The show began with the vocally intricate one-man a capella song “Woods,” from their 2009 EP, Blood Bank. Quickly, the band jumped into the next song, “Perth,” the opening track on their Grammy award-winning self-titled LP, Bon Iver, Bon Iver. The stage, illuminated in dazzling green lights, kept time with the music and brought the performance to a whole new level. It left the audience in a state of awe.

The band smoothly transitioned into “Minnesota, WI” and then “Towers.” Vernon jokingly introduced “Flume,” a track from his 2007 debut album, as “the genesis of Bon Iver.”

After returning to Bon Iver, Bon Iver to play “Wash.” and “Holocene,” the band played another handful of their older material, including “Blood Bank,” “Skinny Love,” and “Creature Fear,” which began with a muted trombone solo and progressed into the percussion section’s jam session, putting the audience into a wild frenzy of excitement.

After playing three more songs from their most recent release, Bon Iver quickly returned for an encore to play “The Wolves (Act I and II),” during which Vernon asked the audience to sing along.

The band ended with their signature heartbreak song, “For Emma,” which brought the house down and left the crowd satiated after a long night of beautiful music. Philadelphia could not have asked for a better evening.