Sparsely Attended Events Feature Tribute Bands & Free Entertainment Thursdays & Saturdays
An interesting thing happened at the Redondo Beach Summer Concerts in July.
A member of a band that was playing walked over to Quality Seafoods during his break to get a beer. The person serving the beer did not recognize his customer so he asked what he was doing on the pier.
“I’m in the band,” the customer proudly replied.
To which the server responded, in a kind of stunned disbelief, “there’s a band on the pier!?”
And that tells you all you need to know about why hardly anybody goes to these free concerts, which take place every Thursday and Saturday on the Redondo Beach Pier in July and August from 6-8 p.m. If someone less than 50 yards away didn’t know there was a band on the pier then how would anyone else in the South Bay know about it?
This actually seems hardly possible but it’s the Redondo Beach Pier so when the band member told this story after his break, a friend and I just shrugged our shoulders. I’ve been to these things a couple times before and this was actually one of the biggest, about 50 people sitting in lawn chairs in the Octagon.
Usually, there’s maybe a dozen standing on the west end of the pier where most of the shows take place.
And the thing is, the band was pretty good. It was Popravinas, which sang original light and upbeat songs, including a pretty catchy one about driving to L.A. Upcoming bands include Indie-Rock (July 8), jazz (July 13) surf (July 15), a Rat Pack tribute (July 27) and tribute bands to The Police (Aug. 10), Led Zeppelin (Aug. 26) and The Doors (Aug. 31).
The shows are free, they are outdoors and end at sunset.
Plus, you can grab a beer to go at one of the little restaurants on the pier or, in all likelihood, simply bring your own, as long as you keep it discreet. For singles and fun adults, there’s also a few bars nearby for pre- or post-concert food and drinks, including at The Slip and the lively Fire Chief at Old Tony’s.
All these factors make the Redondo Beach Summer Concerts an almost secret, hidden gem of the South Bay.
If more people knew about these concerts and went to them on occasion – there’s a huge population base within walking or easy bicycling distance, many of them fun singles more so than the few families that frequent the pier – then these concerts might actually become Thursday and/or Saturday destination events rather than something people literally right around the corner don’t even know exist.
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