Phish Gets 2024 Noblesville Run On Its Way With ‘Diseasefest’

Phish‘s summer tour rolled into Indiana on Friday for the first of three nights at Noblesville’s Ruoff Music Center. The band’s 30th show at the venue formerly known as Deer Creek — and Verizon Wireless Music Center and Klipsch Music Center — featured an uneven first set and jam-laced second set and encore complete with FOUR endings to “Down With Disease.”

The high energy “Punch You In The Eye” opened giving guitarist Trey Anastasio and bassist Mike Gordon a chance to pull off their first choregraphed dance of the evening. “Kill Devil Falls” trailed behind and was cracked wide open with a potent major-key bliss jam featuring an intense peak. Next, Page McConnell led the band through “Halfway To The Moon,” which was last played in February. Trey then trigerred the repeating G note to initiate a run through “Heavy Things” before “Life Saving Gun” exploded out of form. The Evolve cut saw the quartet explore plenty of ground in a few short minutes with McConnell swiftly moving through nearly every instrument in his rig.

“Shade” filled the six-slot after an initial false start that gave way to Anastasio introducing drummer Jon Fishman and his “healing percussion rinse,” in reference to a “Life Saving Gun” lyric. The initial surprise of the night followed as bassist Mike Gordon helmed the first “Scent Of A Mule” in 75 shows, marking the largest gap between plays in the song’s 30-year history. Gordon had a rare vocal miscue when he forgot some of the lyrics after the Klezmer section leading to an aborted ending.

Phish pulled it back together as they romped through the noise-rock of Evolve’s “Pillow Jets,” which was blown out and left unfinished after the band transitioned into a standard version of fan-favorite “Runaway Jim.” The uneven set concluded with the return of “A Day In The Life,” a Beatles cover that had been on the shelf since December 3, 2019 — a whopping 162 shows.

Read on after The Skinny for the rest of the recap and more.

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After soundchecking the rarity on Friday afternoon, Phish dusted off “The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony” to start the second set. “Oh Kee Pa” was last played just over two years to the day prior on July 30, 2022 and gave way to “Axilla (Part II),” which joined an exclusive list of songs besides “Suzy Greenberg” and “AC/DC Bag” to be launched out of the instrumental since 1994. That list only includes “You Enjoy Myself” and “Harry Hood.” The quartet used the ensuing “Down With Disease” to complete a pairing of Hoist tracks. As with “Life Saving Gun” earlier, the adventurous “Disease” was chock full of divergent feels. It may not have been among the longest versions of the jam vehicle but it traversed plenty of ground in egalitarian fashion.

“Scents & Subtle Sounds” came next and featured more expansive Team Phish improvisation with multiple modulations. Phish transitioned from pretty to evil terrain and back again over the course of the standout “Scents.” Trey worked many memorable melodies into the final bliss jam while Page soared on piano, Fish gave a drumming clinic and Gordon kept the segment on course. The quartet eventually passed the 20-minute mark making it the first version of “Scents & Subtle Sounds” to do so since August 12, 2004. Anastasio unleashed fretboard fireworks galore as the climax of the jam found its way back into “Down With Disease.”

The reprise of the end of “Disease” bled into the beautiful instrumental “What’s The Use?” A cover of TV On The Radio’s “Golden Age” smoked for a few minutes and was followed by the 2024 debut of the synth-infused Page McConnell-penned number “I Always Wanted It This Way.” Anastasio was again cooking with gas as he fronted a transition back into the end of “Down With Disease” for the third time to close the set.

Phish punctuated the night with a “You Enjoy Myself” encore featuring a particularly intense Trey solo. Anastasio teased the “Down With Disease” lick during the vocal jam and then picked up his guitar to lead his bandmates through the end of the beloved song a fourth and final time.

The three-night stand in the suburb of Indianapolis resumes on Saturday. Watch livestreams of Phish’s entire 2024 Summer Tour via LivePhish.com.

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