Photo by René Huemer via Phish’s Facebook page

Phish kicked off a three-night run at Noblesville, IN’s Ruoff Music Center, the venue better known as Deer Creek, last night. Notably, these shows fall on the exact dates as The Vermont Quartet’s famed three-night stand at Deer Creek in 2000, which took on a festival-like feel–both since they arrived at the end of that summer’s tour and since Phish did not host one of their then-annual weekend camp outs that year.

Yesterday’s show got off to a strong improvisational start with an almost 13-minute “Blaze On” that segued into an almost 8-minute “Plasma,” before briefly returning to the end of “Blaze On.” From there, Phish offered strong versions of “Roggae,” “Tube,” “Wolfman’s Brother,” “Limb By Limb” and “Hey Stranger,” pushing “Wolfman’s” to almost the 13-minute mark. However, the night’s biggest surprise arrived at the end of the set: So far this tour, Phish have seemingly made a point to play around with their song placements each set and they closed the first half of their show with “Bouncing Around the Room” for the first time. Not only that, but the musicians stretched the usually compact tune, one of only a few originals that rarely deviants from its studio recording on stage, to 15 minutes. According to ZZYZX’s Phish Stats page, last night was the 498th time they have played “Bouncing,” yet the first time they have jammed it out.

Keeping that energy going, Phish opened their second set with a strong, improv-forward second set that commenced with a 16-minute “Oblivion” which segued into an 18-minute, unfinished “Down with Disease,” a 25-minute “You Enjoy Myself” and then, finally,  a rocking “Backwards Down the Number Line.” A standalone “Loving Cup” closed the set, but Phish then returned for an extended, 12-minute “What’s Going Through Your Mind” encore and, finally, their first cover of the Osborne Brothers’ bluegrass ditty “Rocky Top” of the year.

Phish will return to Deer Creek this evening.

Here’s a look at last night’s setlist via Phish.net

Friday, July 10, Ruoff Music Center, Noblesville, IN

Set I: Blaze On -> Plasma -> Blaze On, Roggae, Tube, Wolfman’s Brother, Limb By Limb, Hey Stranger, Bouncing Around the Room

Set II: Oblivion > Down with Disease[1] > You Enjoy Myself > Backwards Down the Number Line, Loving Cup

E: What’s Going Through Your Mind, Rocky Top

[1] Unfinished.

Down with Disease was unfinished.