If 2008 had a musical storyline beyond the seemingly endless reunion of bygone bands, it was the ascendancy of My Morning Jacket.

So it was fitting that the year that began with a three-night New Years run at the 1,100-person Fillmore Theater in San Francisco ended with them headlining the world’s most famous arena — Madison Square Garden — on the biggest concert night of the year.

To mark such an occasion the band requested its fans wear formal attire, and an impressive percentage did so, adding a touch of surreal class even before the similarly tuxedo-clad band appeared on a 1920’s style bar mounted on the corner of the stage.

They left to open their two-set, three-and-a-half-hour concert epic with a cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “Move on Up” before raging through a mixture of MMJ staples, soul and funk covers and cuts off 2008’s Grammy nominated album, Evil Urges. They also brought a number of guests including Centro-Matic’s Will Johnson on a beautiful “Golden” and Nicole Atkins for Marvin Gaye’s “You’re All I Need” (she would return later to play Dolly Parton opposite lead singer Jim James’ Kenny Rogers on “Islands in the Stream”) and throughout the night the band was supplemented by horn section that featured big names like Jeff Coffin of Flecktones fame and Sex Mob front man Steve Bernstein.

My Morning Jacket’s music combines southern rock and jam music with soul and indie rock elements all tied together by the impressive vocals of Jim James who veers from ethereal falsetto to classic rock front man to Prince imitator placing the band in its own musical genre perhaps best described as “post-jam” and that appeals equally to hippies and hipsters. When the first set ended a scant twenty minutes before midnight members of both suffixes were shaking the arena dancing to the last notes of a raging “Magheeta.”

The short set break continued the flapper era motif as video screens throughout MSG began playing vintage movie intermission reels. These culminated in clips from Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” as the clock in the corner clicked down the final seconds. The year 2009 was greeted with a sea of confetti and white balloons falling from the ceiling as a now sparkling white tuxedo clad band burst into Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration” and then “Get Down on It.”

The first set of the new year also included an epic version of “Wordless Chorus,” plus “Anytime” and a cover of James Brown’s “Cold Sweat” before concluding with oh-so-appropriate “One Big Holiday,” which brought the house down. Appearing almost reluctant to have the show end, the band moved back to the bar where they were joined by friends and family and Jim James sang along (loosely) to Auld Lang Syne as it played through the house speakers.

It’s going to be a good year.

For those of you who couldn’t attend or who missed the clips on Anderson Cooper’s NYE Countdown the complete show is available free and legal for download or stream.