The inaugural Catalpa Festival got off to a soggy start on Saturday in Randalls Island Park, but the intermittent rain that turned the lawns in front of the stages into muddy bogs did little to dampen the enthusiasm of people who came out to see the Black Keys and TV on the Radio.
The event is one of several new music festivals started in New York City in recent years, as several entrepreneurs seek to find a formula for outdoor events that will work here. With thunderstorms threatening all day and one heavy rain in the late afternoon, the turnout for what was billed as an eclectic festival was less than the 15,000 people the promoter, David Foran, had predicted it might draw.
Musically, the first day of the festival was dominated by rock of various flavors. TV on the Radio, the Brooklyn indie rock band led by Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone, powered through a set of their energetic songs, which draw on everything from punk beats to slow-jam R&B riffs. On a secondary stage, the Chicago-based jam band Umphrey's McGee did two sets of muscular funk-rock, filigreed with the tight, precise riffs and solos of the band's lead guitarist, Jake Cinninger. A smaller stage at the entrance to the festival was devoted to reggae and, as night came on, electronic dance music, with DJs like Felix Da Housecat.
The rain started again as the Black Keys took the stage at about 9:30. Yet several thousand people pressed up, some of the men lifting women up on their shoulders, as Dan Auerbach, the band's guitarist and vocalist, launched into “Howlin' for You.†A few songs later, Mr. Auerbach and his partner, the drummer Patrick Carney, had the crowd singing along and dancing in the rain as they did “Dead and Gone†and “Gold on the Ceiling,†two hits from their most recent album “El Camino†(Nonesuch).
On Sunday, the second and last day of the festival, the bill features several h ip-hop artists, as Snoop Dogg and ASAP Rocky, performing in the final time slots on the two bigger stages.
No comments:
Post a Comment