Photo Credit: Dave Vann
On Friday, August 2, Phish returned to Noblesville, Ind.’s Ruoff Music Center to kick off the fifth series of its 2024 tour. For its 30th performance at the storied venue—known as Deer Creek when the band first took its stage in 1995—the jam pioneers issued a classic set lined with fan favorites and elevated by a smattering of bust-outs and uncommon sequences. In the two-set, 24-track performance, the band brought on highlights with its first cover of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” in over four years and a staggering four-pronged approach to “Down with Disease.”
Phish ripped into its first set with a high-octane run through the 1989 live essential “Punch You in the Eye,” then danced its way into “Kill Devil Falls,” which reached a soaring apex with the first extended jam of the evening. A Page McConnell-led “Halfway to the Moon” followed, with “Heavy Things” dropping en route to “Life Saving Gun,” the first of two selections drawn from the band’s recently released 16th studio album Evolve in Friday’s program.
After the band went large with this latest entry, with each member exhibiting serious technical trickery to bring the song to new heights, the Vermont quartet presented “Shade,” then merged into the classic “Scent of a Mule,” closing the longest in the track’s history 75 shows after its last staging in September of 2022. Phish then returned to Evolve for “Pillow Jets,” letting loose and going big to transition into a straight-ahead “Runaway Jim.” Finally, to wrap its first set in Indianapolis, the band busted out “A Day in the Life,” bringing the transportive, shapeshifting Beatles standard to life for the first time since December 3, 2019.
Phish re-emerged for the second set with “The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony,” which last appeared just over two years ago on July 30, 2022, at Merriweather Post Pavilion, and of which some fans caught a sample during the sound check. Next came a grooving and unexpected transition into “Axilla (Part II),” then a ripping riff into “Down With Disease,” which proved a perfect vehicle for some diversely exploratory jamming. “Scents and Subtle Sounds” followed this trajectory as an improvisatory centerpiece of the performance, stretching past the 20-minute mark as each member of the quartet dutifully contributed to a sprawling journey through a deviously sinister intro through a rapturous final passage. With Trey Anastasio’s guidance, the group found its way back to the ending section of “Down With Disease” for neither the first, nor the last time in the show.
The second “Down With Disease” melted down into the shimmering instrumental of “What’s The Use?,” which in turn gave way to TV On The Radio’s “Golden Age,” which arrived for the second time on the summer tour after frontman Tunde Adebimpe spoke on the now well-loved cover in a recent interview. After the first 2024 staging of Page McConnell’s “I Always Wanted It This Way,” the band summoned one final surge of energy for an energetic total segue back into “Down With Disease,” wrapping the main portion of the performance with fitting fanfare.
With a beat, the band returned once more for an encore, when it issued a fiery “You Enjoy Myself” and moved once more to “Down With Disease,” capping off the show with an awe-inspiring rendition of the Hoist essential for the history books. Phish returns to Ruoff Music Center tonight for the second in a three-show series, which concludes tomorrow, Aug. 4. For tickets and more information on the band’s full summer schedule, visit phish.com/tours/.
Read on for the complete setlist from Friday night.
Phish
Ruoff Music Center – Noblesville, Ind.
8/2/24
Set I: Punch You in the Eye, Kill Devil Falls, Halfway to the Moon, Heavy Things, Life Saving Gun, Shade > Scent of a Mule, Pillow Jets > Runaway Jim, A Day in the Life
Set II: The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony > Axilla (Part II) > Down with Disease, Scents and Subtle Sounds -> Down with Disease> What’s the Use? > Golden Age, I Always Wanted It This Way -> Down with Disease
Encore: You Enjoy Myself -> Down with Disease
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