NYC's Governors Ball 2012: 10 Best Moments

Duck Sauce (the disco house duo behind the ubiquitous dance hit "Barbra Streisand") tossed a grip of duck bills into the crowd and created a confounding conundrum for fest-goers. "I love the duck bills," a beak-bearing girl told her friends. "But it's hard to look slutty when you're wearing on of these. I don't know how long I'll wear it." An ethical dilemma, to be sure.

There were a lot of highlights to pick from Fiona Apple's set: The high-pitched trills on "Extraordinary Machine" that brought to mind Disney's Snow White, the way she undulated across the stage to the sick guitar solo in "Used to Love Him," or the thrill of hearing the off-kilter percussion of "Anything We Want" (from 'The Idler Wheel...') for the first time in concert. It all added up to the standout set of Governors Ball 2012.

Before treating fans to "Sissyneck" from his 1996 classic 'Odelay,' Beck made a startling revelation: "We have a band that can't whistle," he said of the group of musicians with him onstage, the same bunch that backed him on 2002's 'Sea Change.' "So we need all able-bodied whistlers." The genre-hopping genius tried to demonstrate the opening notes of "Sissyneck" himself, but after failing completely, he was forced to hum the melody to get the crowd going. Apparently Beck has never heard the immortal advice Lauren Bacall gave to Humphrey Bogart: "You know how to whistle. You just put your lips together... and blow."

Halfway through Passion Pit's set of high-energy synthpop, frontman Michael Angelakos basically apologized for having to play new songs the crowd wasn't yet familiar with: "Things are going to get crazy now. We had to get the new stuff out of the way first. You know..." Actually, there was no need to rationalize road-testing the new songs: "It's Not My Fault I'm Happy" was an immediately arresting falsetto-filled gem, and the recent single "Take a Walk" is pretty much an instant electropop classic. Regardless, his warning was correct: Everyone went wild during the encore sing-along to "Little Secrets."

After apologizing for his set's late start due to soundcheck issues, Kid Cudi laid down the law: "I'm about two minutes away from being frustrated," he said. Not even a minute later, the crew gave the man his sound, and he sang/rapped/rocked his way through the final set of Governors Ball Day 1.

Although Penguin Prison's maestro Chris Glover has remixed LDR's "Blue Jeans" before, I don't think anyone in the Gov Ball crowd was expecting the electro-pop outfit to bust out an actual live rendition of it. They turned the somber chanteuse's ballad into a slinky, disco-chic cover that hopefully will find its way onto a Penguin Prison album or EP at some point.

After tearing through their first song, the Kentucky rockers' frontman told the Gov Ball crowd that this would be Cage The Elephant's last show of the year because they were "taking some time off to make a new record." After another number, which found him sounding a bit hoarse, he addressed the audience again: "I want to tell you I lost my voice last night. I woke up and I couldn't even talk. I opened my mouth and [at this point he made a noise somewhere between an excited seal and a terrified kitten]. Our management said we should cancel." After pausing for deafening boos from the crowd, he smiled: "But here we are." Matt Shultz's voice might have been a bit rough on Sunday, but what he lacked in range he more than made up for with his Iggy-like assault on the material. It was an incredible example of sheer energy conquering a physical setback.

Although it did end up raining during Beck's set, the weather was overcast but stable when Modest Mouse played. But that didn't stop the Portland-based rockers from putting some ambient thunderstorm noise on their sound system and jokingly blaming the "thunder" for their slight delay in getting onstage. Brilliant! If you're running late, just pop in one of those nature sounds CDs you get from Target.

The Boise, Idaho indie legends (how often do you hear that phrase?) are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, but instead of marking it with fanfare (like playing an entire album straight-through or doing a crazy cover), the rockers just did what they've been doing since 1992: Delivering impeccably-crafted songs with impressively acrobatic guitar solos.

I knew Devendra Banhart sang in Spanish for a portion of his sets, but not having seen him in concert before, I had no idea how effortlessly smooth and familiar he makes a foreign language sound. He glides between tongues with such dexterity that you barely compute he's not speaking English until he's halfway through the first verse in Spanish.