Black Keys, Snoop Dogg Rule New York’s Catalpa Festival

For their high-energy headlining set on Saturday, the Black Keys  broke straight in to "Howlin' for You" and "Next Girl" before busting out some old favorites.

By the time the Black Keys began their set, the area in front of the main stage had turned into a large mud pit. But Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach's enthusiasm gave fans confidence to get down and dirty with the duo, especially during newer tracks like "Lonely Boy" and "Gold on the Ceilling."

TV on the Radio played the role of "best set break distraction, ever," as they spanned the gap in between Umphrey's McGee's two sets, playing songs such as "Golden Age" off 2008's Dear Science as frontman Tunde Adebimpe went into a full-on, Thom Yorke-inspired wiggle dance.

Rain was the theme all weekend, with Saturday in particular getting slammed with a few sudden downpours. Those that hadn't brought umbrellas or purchased a poncho from a vendor were left to use the Randall's Island fields as their own personal mud pit.

Umphrey's McGee bassist Ryan Stasik has been working on this mustache for months. "I have commitment issues," he said when asked about it. "I commit to things." To keep the corners properly curled, Stasik carries around a small jar of wax in his pocket, just in case.

Hercules and Love Affair delivered the most electronic set of Saturday's offerings, with their sensual gyrating emanating from the stage – in particular from singer Whitney Fierce – and out to a small but curious crowd.

The Sheepdogs hit the stage right as the rain ended on Saturday, leaving a wet and bedraggled but appreciative crowd in its wake. "Over here on stage left is a huge puddle," frontman Ewan Currie said. "I'd like to see somebody just dive in that." After their performance, Currie lamented that no one had gone through with it. "If this was Saskatchewan, some drunk-ass dude would have done it."

Brooklyn rockers Shinobi Ninja won the Q104.3 "Your Shot to Rock" competition to earn a spot on Catalpa's main stage Saturday afternoon. The band made the most of the opportunity with a set that ran the gamut from Linkin Park to the Headbanger's Ball, with a little dash of Beastie Boys influence mixed in.

Just as Zola Jesus hit the stage, the clouds started opening up, turning an already muddy field into a gigantic slip-and-slide. At one point, the singer-songwriter began to climb the scaffolding on the side of the stage, then appeared to get a look at the oncoming clouds and reconsider.

After an extended period of touring, Zola Jesus will head to Washington state in the fall to record her next album. "It's really hard for me to write on the road, because your mind is so chaotic with all your responsibilities," she told Rolling Stone backstage. "So I'm just gonna hide away and write the next record."

"We just try to make music like the music we listen to. We try to make soulful white guy music," said singer-guitarist Ewan Currie of the Sheepdogs, who will embark on a headlining tour this fall. "We're trying to make the music that we like to drink beers and party in the backyard to, or barbecue to, or listen to when you're at a late night party and you put your iPod on."

Umphrey's McGee played two sets (with TV on the Radio sandwiched in between) and delivered classic rock covers during each one, morphing "All in Time" into "The Song Remains the Same" and ending the night with a rendition of "Baba O'Riley."

According to keyboardist Joel Cummins, Umphrey's McGee plan to carve out some time in October to begin working on their next album, although an official release is still "18-24 months away."

Reaction has varied in the eight months since Matisyahu dropped his trademark beard, he told Rolling Stone backstage at the fest. "The main difference has been the split in terms of fans," he said. "The fans who were not fans based on the fact that I represented a certain path, religion, or idea, versus fans who were fans for the reason that I made them cool, or they felt represented by somebody for the first time in mainstream culture."

Matt and Kim's Catalpa set was their first show of the year in their hometown of New York, and they let their excitement be known: the duo made a grand entrance with help from the opening sample of Nas' "The Don" and 500 balloons.

Matisyahu hooked up with producer Kool Kojack for his most recent album Spark Seeker, which came out on July 17th. "Sometimes in this profession it becomes too serious, it becomes too much, the drive to be the best, to be the biggest," he said. "It gets in the way of remembering to enjoy yourself and have a good time. Kojak brought that out of me."

A light drizzle helped cool down Catalpa festivalgoers who had started to bake under the sun on Saturday, then turned the fields back into mud just in time for Cold War Kids, who nonetheless stuck it out and delivered.

"One of my memories of Randall's Island was smoking a joint with Willie Nelson at Farm Aid in 2007," Matisyahu said to Rolling Stone. "I hopped on his tour bus, and Daryl Hannah was there, and the three of us just smoked a joint together right there."

Araabmuzik's slot was the first of back-to-back DJ sets, as he hit the Jeep stage before Girl Talk tackled the Catalpa stage. He barely looked up at all during his hour-long performance, so he must have been the only one who missed the dance party he created.

As he so often does, Girl Talk brought a full party with him onstage, busting straight into "Play Your Part (Pt. 1)" amid a torrent of toilet-paper guns and an inflatable zebra that made its way over the heads of fans. The crowd popped most for his "Smash Your Head" mashup, which brushes the Notorious B.I.G. up against Elton John.

Chants of "ASAP!" rang out as A$AP Rocky's A$AP Mob warmed up the stage and before Rocky himself bounded out, wearing all white and leading  an extensive crew that made sure he was accompanied by at least eight people at all times. "Everything is purple" said Rocky before launching into "Wassup" – even the lighting.

After a rainy Saturday that produced two separate downpours and a muddy start to Sunday, Catalpa avoided any other brushes with the elements and the fields were able to dry out by the time the sun set, making Sunday night a far easier field to navigate than it had been before.

Rocky and his A$AP Mob expertly executed two-fingered snap handshakes (which were immediately imitated by many in the crowd) while running through tracks such as "Thuggin Noise," an unreleased track from the Harlem MC. His set faded toward the end, though as the crowd drifted over to catch the beginning of Snoop Dogg's performance.

Sunday felt like one giant build-up to Snoop Dogg – Matt and Kim, Aunt Martha and City and Colour all had to perform in front of a large banner of his Doggystyle cover art, and just about every artist mentioned that it was the set they were most looking forward to.

Snoop's set actually started early – an almost unheard-of feat for any music festival – and he opened with the familiar sounds of "Gin and Juice" before moving through Doggystyle tracks "Murder Was The Case," "Serial Killer," "G'z and Hustlas" and, of course, "Doggy Dogg World." The set list was all hip-hop classics, and "Snoop Lion" never wound up making an appearance.

"I ain't stopping, I'm like the bunny, I keep going and going," Snoop told the crowd before his two encores, his Pharrell-assisted "Drop It Like It's Hot" and an extended take on "Young Wild and Free," which he transformed from its erstwhile but tepid version on record into a thousand-strong sing-a-long, the undoubted highlight of Sunday.