Review: Rapper Astronautalis praises Dubai’s Bad House Party in spirited freestyle

Rapper Astronautalis performs at Bad House Party at Casa Latina in Dubai. Courtesy of Bad House Party

It’s a familiar story: A musician touches down, performs a by-numbers set, and takes off with a large cheque poking from his/her back pocket.

Not Astronautalis. Performing at Dubai's Casa Latina (on December 3), the American indie-rap artist didn't just thank the crowd from the stage. He didn't just give hosts Bad House Party a well-deserved hand. He didn't – even – just dedicate a brand new song written about the kind of people who, like them, make things happen (apparently entitled S*** Going On In Your Town).

No. He rapped. A touching, spirited, three-minute, a capella freestyle monologue tracing the night’s story of “DIY survival”, from sofas and “sweat boxes”, to the scene that’s built up today. “These people are my idols,” he yells. You can’t show more love than that.

Even an inebriated Scottish heckler couldn’t stop Astro’s flow – he just slowed it down and brought the rowdy one into the fold.

“We’re in Dubai where all cultures can meet,” he rapped sagely.

This was just the most goosebump-tingling, awe-inspiring moment in a pretty darn hair-curling evening. Casa Latina’s tiny stage couldn’t contain Astronautalis’s aggressive attack and ricochet rhymes. The grunge-soaked smash of his band’s drums and guitar threatened to shake down the very walls around us. This was something real and raw, a genuine thunderbolt experience shared by a few hundred folk in the know.

The criticism that there’s “no live (indie) music in Dubai” has been pretty null and void for some time now (head nod: The Other Side). But it’s still too few and far between, and not many nights in recent memory have captured that uniquely quixotic mood – that feeling that comes as a bunch of sweaty, fraternal musicophiles frantically jump around a dark room to music both visceral and thinking – better than Bad House Party’s second international booking. More, please.

“Can’t believe rap music took me to Dubai,” Astronautalis shared after the gig. Thanks to the efforts of a few serious music-heads, it did.

• Bad House Party takes place on the first Thursday of every month. See www.facebook.com/thebadhouseparty.