A “Golden Era” of Twin Cities music: the mid-1960s through the 1970s (an interview with Paul Groves)

If you grew up in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul during the mid-1960s and 1970s, you know it was a “golden era” for local music. We had legendary venues, unforgettable bands, and a rock scene that could rival any major city in the country.

In this podcast episode, host Bob Edholm gets together with Paul Groves, his friend since their junior high school days in Columbia Heights, to talk about that special time for local music.

Paul’s journey into the Twin Cities music scene began when he was just 11 years old and saw The Bad Omens, a local rock band, play at the Columbia Heights Field House.

In addition to the Field House, Paul started watching bands play at nearby venues like the KC Hall and Casino Royale in Fridley and the eighth-floor auditorium at Dayton’s in downtown Minneapolis. Once Paul reached “driving age,” he saw bands play at places like The Launching Pad and The Mermaid in Mounds View and The Chalet in Robbinsdale. Basically, Paul watched dozens of local bands virtually every weekend in the mid-1960s and 1970s.

Some of those unforgettable Twin Cites bands that Paul followed included South 40 (later renamed Crow), The Castaways, The Del Counts, The Underbeats (later renamed Gypsy), The Hot Half Dozen, Michael’s Mystics, and T.C. Atlantic.

But Paul didn’t just watch the Twin Cities music scene grow—he became a part of that scene as a drummer and singer. He bought a Slingerland silver-sparkled drum set at B Sharp Music in Northeast Minneapolis, and he played in a couple of Heights bands in the late 1960s (The Fourth Generation) and Seventies (Hi-Way). And more recently, Paul provided the vocals for several recorded covers of classic Beatles tunes.

Also in this episode, Paul gives kudos to several outstanding bands and musicians from the Heights during that same “golden era” of Twin Cities music.

Paul has lived in Florida since late 2019 (he loves the warm weather so he can wear short pants every day of the year!), but he was back in Minnesota in August 2026 to organize the 55-year reunion for the Columbia Heights Senior High School Class of 1971. (To paraphrase an old advertising jingle, “You can take Paul out of the Heights, but you can’t take the Heights out of Paul.”)

So have a listen as Paul shares with Bob his stories and memories of the Twin Cities rock band scene in the mid-1960s and well into the 1970s.