The Districts’ Latest Record Draws Inspiration From Mass Shooting, Taking Acid With a Septuagenarian

Singer and guitarist Rob Grote of the Districts drew inspiration for the band’s latest album from one of the most unpleasant aspects of modern life — a mass shooting — and another one full of joy: taking acid with an aged Vietnam war veteran in the vicinity of an active volcano.

The Philadelphia trio, which plays the Bluebird Theater on Friday, March 18, just released its single “No Blood,” pondering the gun violence that plagues American cities and much of the world.

Grote’s inspiration was sparked by a near-miss the band experienced in Paris in 2015. The Districts were scheduled to play a show at the venue La Cigale when terrorists attacked the nearby Bataclan theater and killed more than 130 people and injured more than 400 others who were attending a concert. Grote and his bandmates were locked inside La Cigale for a time before being allowed to walk back to their hotel room.

“It was a frightening experience,” Grote recalls. “It hit close to home, being at a music venue. It’s just a shame these things happen. People are trying to come together and see something good, play music and listen together.”

The incident was obviously traumatic and difficult to comprehend, but Grote says he’s learned to embrace not letting fear get the best of him and to keep having fun and living life. Regardless of that outlook, he is perturbed that gun violence is so prevalent in the modern world.

“Growing up in the era of stuff going down in schools and in general, it’s pretty upsetting and scary,” Grote says. “That song was written as this idea of defying the fear around that stuff.”

The song appears on the Districts’ fifth full-length, Great American Painting, which was released last week on Fat Possum records. Grote says he wrote some of the songs for the record in Philadelphia, where he has lived for the past eight years, but much of it came together while he was living in a cabin in Washington state with a girlfriend during the height of the COVID pandemic. The cabin was only a few miles from Mt. Rainier, an active volcano that was visible on a clear day.

“It was an interesting place to reflect on the state of the world,” Grote reflects. “I went from the city, where COVID stuff was crazy and protests were going on. I went out into the woods, where it was completely silent. It’s a totally different perspective on the world. It was very contrasting, the two worlds where I wrote the record.”

While he was living at the cabin, Grote quickly befriended his neighbor, a seventy-something Vietnam war veteran named Paul.

“He was living next door, and we didn’t know what to expect,” Grote says. “We ended up having a ton in common. He’s a music fan and was a hippie back in the day. He went to Woodstock and stuff. He’s a good guy.”

The two started talking about psychedelics on one of their first nights hanging out. Paul mentioned he had mushrooms, which Grote offered to trade for some LSD. Grote didn’t think Paul would want to trip together, but he was into it, and they dropped acid. It turned out Paul was a seasoned acid eater who had a stash of fractal videos and said he’d even had mescaline shipped to him while he was in Vietnam.

“We put on some weird surreal movies and listened to music and hung out,” Grote says. “It was really interesting. We are at two different stages of life. He’s an older dude and I’m in my twenties. It was pretty powerful, thinking about life and death and the world at large.”

The experience inspired another single off the new record called “I Want to Feel It All.”

“It’s hard to explain while I’m not in that head space,” Grote says. “It’s the feeling of experiencing everything possible at once or something. That song was kind of about that. I want to live a big life and see it all, feel it all.”

The band recorded a video for one of its songs, “Do It Over,” near the cabin, and Grote rode Paul’s motorcycle during a shoot. The two have stayed in touch since then.

Grote says Great American Painting isn’t a high-concept record, and the biggest theme running through the new songs is one of resilience and keeping it together in a chaotic, crazy world. It’s been a difficult few years for everyone, and he and his bandmates are no exception.

“We put out our last record the day everything locked down,” he says. “That was a really huge blow. We were gearing up to be on the road, gearing up to work. It was definitely weird. We had to struggle to figure some stuff out. We made it through.”

Just as the album was set to debut, the Districts released “Great American Painting, An Essay Narrated by Rob Grote,” a fever dream of looped ambient music; super 8 footage of the band performing and out in the world; and Grote’s musings on the record, the band and life in general. The pandemic had stopped the band’s forward momentum and provided Grote the time to think about things.

“It was the first time we’d stopped to think, in a way, after being young and doing all that,” Grote says. “I wrote this thing about the record and how it relates in my mind to when we started and why we started. I was thinking about who we are and why we do this. … I think we have this need to play music.”

Great American Painting is now available via Fat Possum Records. The Districts play the Bluebird Theater, 3317 East Colfax Avenue, Friday, March 18, 9 p.m. Tickets are $22.75; learn more at thedistrictsband.com.