Review: Catalpa Festival @ Randall's Island (Day 2)

Girl Talk @ Catalpa NYC

Catalpa Festival @ Randall’s Island - July 29, 2012
Photos: Geanna B. and James MacFie / Review: Geanna B.

La-di-da-di-dahh! It's time to talk about the D-O-double-G! What, what, what whaaaaaat! Fo' rizzle. If there was anyone at Catalpa who was more excited to see Snoop Dogg than me, I would like to shake that person's hand. And then possibly give them a high five. Possibly. My dad hates rap music, so I used to have to listen to Snoop in my room quietly with headphones on without moving, so as not to upset his classic rock sensibilities. But before I geek out on middle school nostalgia, let's dive right into the funstuffs.

Sunday. Round Two. No Mercy, Mr. LaRusso.

Review: Catalpa Festival @ Randall's Island (Day 1)

Catalpa Festival @ Randall’s Island - July 28, 2012
Photos: Geanna B. and James MacFie / Review: Geanna B.

Renaissance Fairs are great, we know this much is true. Where else can you eat delicious turkey legs while donning your favorite crushed velvet garments and lamenting the devastation of the Bubonic Plague? Probably nowhere, actually. But even in the midst of all this Humanist fun, there is one major thang that the Renaissance inarguably lacks: the presence of Snoop D-O-G-G and his historic album, Doggystyle.

Lucky for us, Catalpa NYC was there last weekend to fill the void. But what is Catalpa, exactly? And how did it get its name? And how are we to pronounce said name? And why were there no cats involved? AND WHERE WERE THE BRISKET TACOS?! All of these questions remain unanswered, but we did give it a Google, just for good measure:

Catalpa Festival Next Weekend! (7/28-29) Lineup, Set Times and Tickets!

Veritable smorgasbord music festival Catalpa is coming to Randall's Island next Saturday and Sunday, featuring 3 stages and over 40 artists throughout the hip-hop, indie, reggae and electronic music scenes. The official lineup and full schedule have been announced and are available on the festival's website, with info about tickets, transportation and a pretty ridiculous flame throwing sculpture/structure/DJ booth.

No, really. Check it out for yourself.

Review: Governors Ball 2012 @ Randall's Island (Day 2)

Fiona Apple

Governors Ball 2012 @ Randall's Island - June 24, 2012

Photos: Chris / Review: Damien & Chris

Damien's Thoughts:

It says a lot about my sense of optimism when I wake up on the morning of any music festival and assume that it's going to be a maaaaaassive shitshoooooow, but as it turns out I had absolutely nothing to worry about when I got to Randall's Island for Day 2 of Governors Ball 2012.

Transportation from my uptown lair to the island itself was a breeze (in the form of a hipster-filled X80 bus to Randall's), and upon retrieving my VIP wristband ably provided by VIP Of Life James MacFie, I found myself staring down into a field containing two massive stages and dozens of tents full of swag and tacos and tacos (and tacos). I lowered the elbows that I was expecting to have to throw on my way in and strutted off to the VIP area at the Hype Machine stage to meet up with Jamie and Chris to chill on beers and air-conditioning before checking out Freelance Whales. Yes, that last sentence sounds bougie, but damn if I don't love some VIP treatment.

Freelance Whales put on a good set for sure, but I quickly forgot about it as we were using the area essentially just to meet up before heading to the other side of the Ball to get our minds rocked by NYC-via-Saratoga Springs indie rock / electronica duo Phantogram on the Honda Stage. I'd seen Jamie rocking their album and EP on Spotify and been intrigued, but their live set took their shoegaze-meets-J. Dilla beats musical style to a completely different level. Perhaps benefitted by the Honda Stage's intense bass setup and touring drummer Tim Oakley, tracks from the Eyelid Movies LP like "Running From The Cops" and "Mouthful of Diamonds" took on a slinky and infectious life of their own. The beautiful Sarah Barthel let her vocals soar over the near-chiptune stylings of Nightlife''s "Don't Move," and by the time the band ended the set with "Futuristic Casket" the crowd was in full dance party mode. Definitely a band to catch when next they rock a venue or festival near you.

As evidenced by the number of beards sported by the crowd, Sunday's audience was definitely here to catch the '90s indie power players that were set to rock the stage: Built To Spill, Fiona Apple, and muh-fuckin' Beck. And really, how many different ways can I affirm the inevitability that YES, THEY ALL COMPLETELY KICKED ASS? I saw BTS rock through "Virginia Reel Around The Fountain," I saw Fiona kick her absolutely electrifying set off with "Fast As You Can" and end it with "Criminal," AND I saw Beck - who we honestly had no idea what he was going to do - rock through the bulk of Odelay and get thousands of people chanting the lyrics of "Loser" into the summer night sky.

All that and I ate nearly a half-dozen Hill Country BBQ brisket tacos. Props to the Governors Ball staff for near-flawlessly pulling off a Sunday in NYC that I won't soon forget.

Review: Governors Ball 2012 @ Randall's Island (Day 1)

Governors Ball 2012 @ Randall's Island - June 23, 2012

Photos: Chris / Review: Geanna B. & Chris

Geanna's thoughts:

Did you guys know that neon is back? Well, it is. It's back in a big effing way, as was evidenced by the slew (yes, SLEW) of mutants rockin' some neon at the Governor's Ball on Saturday. Now in its second year, the Ball offered two days of festivities on Randall's Island, having since moved from their Governor's Island location of yesteryear. There were blow-up monkeys, brisket tacos, Native American headdresses and lots and lots of shirtless bros. And the icing on this summerlicious cake? Chris bought a $15 souvenir water bottle, making this his most successful trip to Randall's Island to date!

We would be jerkfaces if we didn't give a shout-out to our benefactor, James MacFie, who so generously dished out some free VIP passes to our rag-tag team of FN editors. Did we mention the clean, AC-ed, VIP bathrooms? The very large cans of Miller High Life? The strippers?

Putting together two very different days of music, Saturday and Sunday were clearly geared towards different audiences... of very different ages. Saturday's line-up of Kid Cudi, Passion Pit, Duck Sauce and Chromeo brought out all the kiddies in various forms of as-naked-as-you-could-get attire, ready to dance and scream and rage. Despite the rave-ish aspects of this mixup, the day was still pretty hassle free, leaving plenty of time to drink the champagne of beers and devour many tacos, pizzas, and teriyaki balls, oh my! Another plus - there were only two stages with no overlapping sets, allowing everyone to ping-pong themselves back and forth without missing a beat (pun intended! yeah!) all day.

A few choice moments included Major Lazer literally telling everyone to "TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRTS!" and whip them around in the air! Honestly, I have never seen a crowd so eagerly remove their neon tanks in order to obey the Laze. Seeing this shit go down was mesmerizing and hilarious. Beats were dropped. Steps were dubbed. A naked girl danced on stage. It was a very Jerzy moment. Across the way, the Duck Sauce stage featured a large inflatable duck sporting a fancy jacket. They did keep the party going in between posing for photos and readjusting their hats, but all I could think of was that disturbingly addictive video for "Big Bad Wolf." It's Big Bad Terrifying.

The highlight of the day's festivities was by far and away was the DJ set from Special Disco Version - LCD's James Murphy and Pat Mahoney - who were so chill and happy and enjoying themselves that it just set the tone for an extremely satisfying good time. In a perfect summer moment, it was exactly the self-proclaimed "block-party" that Mr. Murphy wanted, without the angst and intensity of basically every other performance that day. Giving us sounds of the 70s and 80s (and a little bit o'Harvest Moon, hollaaaaa!), I probably could have listened to this all day and been perfectly content.

More brisket tacos, please.