My Morning Jacket's perfect wrap, and more RTG set info

In addition to the jaw-dropping set his band played to finish off the night, My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James also made a few heart-warming comments on stage Saturday that helped make it a Rock the Garden to be proud of.

"What a beautiful community you have, and a beautiful event," he gushed, right before soaring through the big finale "One Big Holiday." Earlier in the show, he paid homage to the Walker's/Minneapolis' most famous sculpture: "I went and sat by the cherry-on-the-spoon this morning, and I just stared," he said. "I became one with the cherry."

Neko Case talked a whole lot between songs, but not much of it made sense. I'm still trying to piece together what exactly she said about sticking an ice-cube on a stick in your arm pit and ripping it out to make a popsicle (or something like that). Her most clear-headed moment was the self-deprecating comment she made about playing another "mid-day summer bum-out" song.

I generally love Case, but her set truly was a bummer Saturday. Just a few peppier numbers amid all the slow-burning, torchy twang songs might have helped salvage things. Her band had just come off a hiatus, too, and sounded uncharacteristically tepid -- although nothing could tarnish the magical harmonies that Case seems to naturally craft with her sidekick Kelly Hogan, which were especially apparent in "That Teenage Feeling" and "Star Witness."

Here is Neko's full set list: Things That Scare Me / Maybe Sparrow / The Pharaohs / Hold On, Hold On / Margaret vs. Pauline / I'm an Animal / Don't Forget Me / Red Tide / ?? / That Teenage Feeling / Vengeance Is Sleeping / Star Witness / Knock Loud

On top of "One Big Holiday" and the other key moments I singled out in the full review for tomorrow's paper (online now here), MMJ offered up several other highlights worth noting. "I'm Amazed" and "Golden" unsurprisingly sounded stellar (two of their best songs on record, too). The lesser-played "Steam Engine" challenged the crowd with its long, slow-building jams but ultimately paid off in monstrous ways. "Outta My System" proved to be another worthy live addition off the new album, "Circuital." I even thought the dark choral dirge of "Holdin' on to Black Metal" -- which is something of a drag when the Current plays it on air -- sounded more powerful and really quite fascinating on stage. Too bad the band couldn't do its usual 2½-hour set or even an encore because of the 10 p.m. curfew. But then it would've been hard to top "One Big Holiday."

Here's the full MMJ set list: Victory Dance / Circuital / Wordless Chorus / Off the Record / First Light / Gideon / Golden / Wonderful (The Way I Feel) / Outta My System / I'm Amazed / Holdin' on to Black Metal / Steam Engine / Smoking From Shooting / Touch Me I'm Going to Scream, Part 2 / One Big Holiday