Hermosa Beach Summer Concerts 2018 Dates & Bands Local’s Review

Hot August Nights In L.A.’s South Bay

On each Sunday afternoon, the Los Angeles seaside community of Hermosa Beach throws a party on its most treasured asset – its sand.

Talk about #SundayFundays!

Called the Sunset Concert Series, it features bands playing on a stage with the pier as the backdrop. There’s even a warm-up band plus a DJ before the main show. It starts at 4:30 p.m., with the main band taking the stage after 6, and ends to a brilliant sunset – almost as if nature is supplying the final applause – at around 7:30 p.m.

The 2018 Summer Concert series is every Sunday in August. The bands, chosen through a series of competitors by Saint Rocke, a Hermosa Beach live music bar, are as follows:

• Aug. 5 – The Beat (English Beat)
• Aug.  12 – Sashamon
• Aug. 19– Big Head Todd and the Monsters
• Aug. 26 – Venice (featuring Robby Krieger of The Doors)

Residents of Hermosa and the neighboring cities of Manhattan and Redondo treat the shows like a picnic. They bring beach chairs and towels to sit on the sand and stake out an era with, well, steak, chicken, cheese and crackers, and all manner of food and snacks.

It’s important to note that while alcohol consumption is illegal on California beaches, officials have a very casual attitude about this policy during the beach concerts. However, it is equally important to note that if people act like idiots and openly drink out of bottles and cans, then this privilege could go away, so keep your drinks concealed and don’t act like a first-time fool.

Beach chairs and blankets fill the sand from 11th Street to 7th Street and there are a few thousand people at each concert.

The music is provided by regional touring bands and local musicians like Jeremy Buck & The Bang and Barley.

Some people dance in the sand by the stage, some stay put and eat and drink on their beach towels and blankets and some walk around and mingle (yes, it’s a vey good singles scene).

Yet this is also a town of several young and single people and for them it’s an open-air social party. They bring beverages to compliment their food and spend the time talking, using the music as a pleasant background soundtrack.

After the concerts, those single people hit the bars – The Mermaid has Sunday Happy Hour until 7, Sharkeez has Sunday Happy Hour starting at 5 and the busiest place through the night is Patrick Molloy’s, which has music and beers and cocktails for $3 and $4.