Some audience members have their arms in the air, their wrists slowly rotating as their fingers draw shapes in the smoke. Morpheus just said his bit and now everyone in Zion@@morpheus and zion spelled right but…what?@@ is raging hard to Africana, eastern-sounding, acoustic/electronic tribal beats. The bodies in the mass of flesh and sweat sway left-to-right subtly, sexually.@@oh@@ @@Switched first and second sentence. reads better@@

Not unlike the scene from “The Matrix,” Beats Antique — which is made up of David Satori, Tommy Cappel and Zoe Jakes@@http://www.beatsantique.com/bio/@@ — rocked McDonald Theatre Wednesday night.@@http://www.mcdonaldtheatre.com/event_info/beats_antique.html@@
Thanks to Jakes, their show is as much a visual experience as it is a musical one. At various points, Jakes, along with an unnamed but equally talented guest dancer, dressed and danced in everything from masquerade outfits to large two-person costumes with extravagant head pieces and accessories.
The group is on tour to promote its latest album, “Elektrafone.”@@http://beatsantique.bandcamp.com/album/elektrafone@@ The band releases music on its own label to its close-knit fan base.
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During an interview with the Emerald, Beats Antique musician and producer Tommy Cappel discussed music distribution and the downside of record companies.
“I buy music, and I download it for free. When we started off, we kind of did the opposite — (we were) on a subsidiary label of Universal. Then we decided that that wasn’t our scene. We wanted to be ourselves, and we wanted to do it our way,” Cappel said.
He mentioned that they were inspired by Radiohead @@http://www.last.fm/music/Radiohead@@to move toward becoming independent after Radiohead released “In Rainbows,” @@http://www.amazon.com/Rainbows-Radiohead/dp/B000YXMMAE@@online with a name-your-own-price payment structure.
“To me, it depends on where the music is coming from — if it comes from the artist I’ll try and buy it, but if I just want to hear it, then I’ll hear it, you know? It just makes more sense,” he said. “I don’t mind if someone decides to pirate our music.”@@Interesting quote@@
“The reason why record contracts exist is because there is a medium that costs a lot of money,” he continued. “The actual recording of music is a price that is decided by the people who record it. Literally the cost now to make a record is just the cost of a computer, a sound card, a microphone. When a record label pays for it, you get $1 per record. When you sell it, you get 80 percent of what it costs.”
Cappel explained that the decision to be independent is largely a matter of wanting to do self-promotion.
“It comes down to, basically, do you want the promotion? Because it’s going to be expensive to have a record label promote you. To me, this works, and it’s a better plan. Nobody is telling, ‘Oh, you have to make a record like this; you have to look like this; you have to act like this,’” he said.
According to Cappel, resistance is futile.
“The reality is that at the end of the day — even if you’re going to make downloading music illegal, people are still going to do it. It’s a fact of life. And I like to make facts of life my inspiration.”
With an attitude like that, it’s no wonder that the group has a dedicated fan base and is playing to a packed McDonald Theatre.
Many at the show on Wednesday night had seen the group before.
“The first time I saw them it was like my friends playing a show. The second time I saw them it was like (my friends) were playing a show but even cooler. And the third time I saw them they were doing some real shit,” said Harry Balsania, a self-proclaimed longtime fan of the group.@@not on facebook or directory@@ @@really? REALLY?@@

For others, it was their first experience with the band.
“I like how they fuse the stage act with the music. I like how they go from world music and then drop in some contemporary electronic stuff. It’s awesome. The whole experience is really well done,” said Doug Johnson, a recent transplant to Eugene from Virginia.@@could be this guy: http://www.facebook.com/animalheat@@
And producer Tommy Cappel’s favorite part of the shows?
“People. Sound. Sweat. Those are my three favorite things about playing shows. Oh, and getting there. Like planes, trains and automobiles — something is going to happen, so getting to every show is an adventure.”