the song.
Beginning with the remarkably modest request, “Uh, so, uh… could somebody please play this at the bathhouse?” Damian Michaels delivers a euphoric dance-pop track about insatiable appetites, heavenly bodies, and the questionable spiritual geography of bathhouses.
Between soaring, atmospheric choruses and playful, rapid-fire verses, play this at the bathhouse takes listeners from the deepest corners of hell to the saunas of Elysium, with a brief stop at the bathhouse along the way. Seraphim steam, cherubs misbehave, and apparently heaven has a locker room.
Beneath the absurdity is something a little more familiar. Some places are somewhere you go for a night. Others become somewhere you return to so often that you eventually stop feeling like a visitor. Damian has never been particularly interested in explaining the difference.
Part love letter to nightlife that saved him, part divine intervention, and part extremely specific request to the DJ, the song doesn’t ask for salvation.
Just somebody to play it at the bathhouse.
What does “insatiable” mean in the chorus?
Wanting more when you’ve already had enough. Or thinking you’ve had enough until somebody walks through the door. It might not even be about sex. Damian has a habit of disguising rather complicated feelings as very simple appetites.
Is this supposed to be a serious song or a joke?
We don’t think a song has to stop being sincere just because someone mentions a bathrobe and his ass in the same sentence. There are several extremely serious feelings buried underneath this extremely unserious song.
Is “play this at the bathhouse” actually intended for DJs?
Absolutely.
Is there a reason the song is literally called “play this at the bathhouse”?
It’s a very sophisticated promotional strategy.