It was my first time seeing Neko Case and she sounded absolutely great. The highlight for me was probably “I Wish I Was the Moon”. It’s not my favorite song by her but one of my favorites but she did a wickedly sweet version and then it lead in to the great “Star Witness” and “Margaret Vs. Pauline”. It was a treat for me to hear “The Tigers Have Spoken” as well as “Knock Loud”, the latter of which was pounded out even harder than on her “Canadian Amp” album. ALL of the new songs sounded good which makes me barely able to wait until March of 2009 to get my hands on them. A Nilsson song that she covered, Don’t Forget Me, will be on the new album and it sounded familiar (but Nilsson does have a certain sound) so I listened to a sample of it on iTunes and it’s a good song but I can tell that Neko’s going to top the original.

Here’s my attempt at a set list. Or, is it setlist? The order is not perfect, but you’ll get the idea…

1) The Tigers Have Spoken
2) New Song! Title = Blue Blue Baby
3) New Song! Title = Middle Cyclone
4) Deep Red Bells
5) New Song!
6) Things That Scare Me
7) I Wish I Was the Moon
Star Witness
9) Margaret Vs. Pauline
10) Knock Loud
11) That Teenage Feeling
12) Maybe Sparrow
13) Dirty Knife
14) Don’t Forget Me (a Harry Nilsson song to be included on the new album)
15) Hold On, Hold On
16) Favorite

Encore:
17) New song – just Neko and her guitarist, Paul
18) Buckets of Rain
19) New song!
20) John Saw That Number

Here are a couple of reviews of the show that I found:
http://badgerherald.com/blogs/arts/2008/09/20/forward_music_fest_n.php
http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/entertainment/305770