Rock and roll fans who grew up in the Chicago suburbs during the late ‘60s know the teen club circuit well. Places like the Jaguar, Blue Village, the Cellar were the clubs where everybody played.

And not only Chicago bands like The Cryan’ Shames, the Flock, the Mauds, and H.P. Lovecraft, but top acts like The Who, The Yardbirds, Iron Butterfly, and the Spencer Davis Group.

And one of the local bands that opened for many of these acts was Grope. Formed in 1967 in the Chicago suburb of Glen Ellyn, Grope was immediately a force to be reckoned with simply because they didn’t name their band “The” Grope, it was just Grope. In 1967, your band was supposed to be “the” something, but Grope was already setting out to be different and they quickly lived up to their reputation.

While all the other bands in the area were still playing Louie, Louie and Wipeout, Grope was playing ditties from the most recent Frank Zappa albums and entire sides of the Doors albums along with Grateful Dead and Buffalo Springfield tunes.

Many of the kids didn’t appreciate the band because they couldn’t dance to it, but those fans who were hip enough to understood what the band was doing, definitely “got it”.

Grope lived from 1967 through 1969, and as most musicologists realize, that was a pretty incredible time in music history and an incredible time to be in a band.

The band probably had a dozen members over its three year life span. Amongst them Dean Milano, Pat Cannon, Dave Turnquist, Russ Ward, Bob Baum, Ken Slauf, Nelson Lund, Steve Zoellin, Steve Betts, Dennis Loeber and others.

Grope broke up in 1969, but after a quick 50 year long hiatus, the original members of Grope are flying in from around the country several times a year to rock the house in Chicago. Dean Milano, Pat Cannon, Bob Baum, Russ Ward and Ken Slauf are once again playing their hearts out like a bunch of high school kids.