Beats Antique Canopy Club Show Review

Last Tuesday, a hush settled over the crowd as Beats Antique (BA) prepared to open the Shadowbox in the Canopy Club. The crowd had already been primed by the musical stylings of Thriftworks and TOO MANY ZOOZ. Thriftworks is a versatile DJ-turned-break/dub producer and all around weird guy, while TOO MANY ZOOZ is famous for playing 3-piece jazz in the New York Subway—both are highly recommended. As for Beats Antique, I've been lucky enough to see them perform at Canopy twice in the past, in 2012 and 2014 (fun fact: the 2012 set was the first non-festival show I'd ever seen, as Canopy was one of the only venues that was 18+ and I was a wee tyke), so I was prepared for a night of intense visuals and funky hip-hop fusion music.

The band's three founding members from left to right: Zoe Jakes, (bass drummer and Tribal Fusion dancer), David Satori (DJ), and Tommy "Sidecar" Cappel (percussionist).

Compared with the previous BA sets I'd seen, this was an entirely new experience and the Canopy production crew did not disappoint. Not only was the usual live dancing and percussion used to great effect to spice up David Satori's DJing skills, but this show also featured massive shadow puppetry and mid-set breaks for storytelling. Musically, the show was stellar, featuring multiple throwbacks to my favorite Beats Antique album Contraption volumes I and II, as well as live mixing of the band's recent collaboration with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band aka one of New Orleans's oldest and hottest music halls. In typical Canopy style, the venue was stuffed to the gills and filled with smoke, making for an overall surreal and highly enjoyable experience. One aspect of BA that makes me hesitate is the band's incorporation of traditional Indian and southern Asian dancing, given that all of the band members are Americans who have no cultural claim to belly dancing, Indonesian instruments, or the outfits Zoe Jakes typically wears while the band performs. However, I believe that the band has really made efforts to not appropriate culture without paying respect to its sources, and it shows in the updated style of the Shadowbox tour compared with the BA shows in years past. The storytelling interludes with shadow puppetry accompaniments and instrument changes used between the different tracks on Tuesday were used to give the show a narrative. Also, instead of the haphazard melting pot of Eastern instruments and rhythms from past albums, the tracks from Shadowbox showcase distinct musical styles and genres, as can be seen from the many features on the album. The band members have continued to draw on their personal histories to improve the quality of their shows, with James incorporating many ballet moves from her 10 years of ballet performance, and Cappel and Satori paying homage to their afro-beat roots with plenty of well-layered Fela Kuti samples.I hope to see BA perform at Canopy again in the future, and continue to evolve their sound as modern hip-hop pioneers. Shadowbox is an album I would recommend to absolutely everyone, especially the singles “Let It All Go” ft. the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and The Block ft. their tour guest TOO MANY ZOOZ. For you pizza fans on campus, I'll see you at the Canopy Club later this semester...don't miss Lupe Fiasco and Waka Flocka!