"Historically, as you know, public facing live music can be a little standard. So I try to bring in something that's a little bit different, a little less run of the mill."
That's Robin Young, talking to the Claremont Courier this past spring about the job she just took back after fifteen years away. If the name doesn't ring a bell, the nickname might: in 1981, as a teenage punk rocker, she went by "Robin Banks." She spent decades after that as the talent buyer at the late Press Restaurant, the venue that's now Finney's Crafthouse, where she booked an upstart Ben Harper before anyone outside Claremont knew who he was and brought John Doe of X through town more than once. She also booked Friday Nights Live from its inception in 2008 through 2009. Then she stepped away. This year, for the first time since that first run, she's back at the helm.
If you've lived in Claremont long enough to think of Friday Nights Live as wallpaper, something that's just always on in the background from May through October, this is the year to actually listen again.
The Same Format, a Different Ear
On paper, nothing changed. Free live music, 6 to 9 p.m., every Friday from May 1 through October 16, spread across the Village. That's been the pitch since the series started. What changed is who's picking the bands, and Young has said outright that she's trying not to book the standard stuff. The kickoff night in May made the point: Claremont Voodoo Society at the Depot stage, Arrow Highway at Shelton Park, Pride of Cucamonga at Village Plaza. A Deadhead tribute, blues rock, and eclectic rock with a dash of old-timey jazz, all on the same night, all free, all within a few blocks of each other.
That's the part worth knowing if you've been treating all three stages as interchangeable. They're not booked that way anymore.
Three Stages, Three Different Nights
Friday Nights Live now runs simultaneously across Shelton Park, Village Plaza, and the Depot, which shares its building with the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art. Pull a few weeks of the actual 2026 lineup and a pattern shows up fast:
| Stage | Location | Sample 2026 acts | What you're walking into |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shelton Park | Bonita & Harvard | The SideKarz, The Bells, The Passports | Classic rock, swamp soul, pop covers. The louder, more crowd-facing stage. |
| Village Plaza | 101 N. Indian Hill | Calypso Pirates, Steel Wagon, The Dogs | Steel pan, country, deep cuts. The stage most likely to surprise you. |
| The Depot / CLMOA | 200 W. First St. | The Lounge Lazers, Mick Rhodes & The Hard Eight, The Mercy Bros. | Instrumental grooves and Americana rock, with a gallery show running behind the stage. |
That last one is worth a second look if you haven't been by. The Depot is currently hosting Samella! Black as Lacquer and Iron, an exhibition on Scripps art history professor Samella Lewis that runs through mid-November. You can catch a set outside and walk the show inside on the same visit, which is not something you could do at either of the other two stages.
None of this is dramatic. It's a Friday night cover band series in a small city. But the fact that someone is now curating three distinct rooms rather than just filling three slots is the difference between background noise and something you'd plan an evening around.
Five Fridays Left
The season closes October 16. As of this week, that leaves five Fridays on the calendar, including tonight: September 18, September 25, October 2, October 9, and October 16. This week's lineup is already posted: Blues & Fries, Chris Thayer & The TC3, and Rockit! across the three stages.
If you've been meaning to check out the new booking before the season wraps, this is the stretch to do it. The series doesn't run in the winter, and there's no guarantee the three-stage format or Young's booking carries over exactly the same way next spring. Whatever this year sounds like, it's temporary by design.
A practical way to use the next month: pick a different stage each Friday instead of camping out at the one nearest your usual parking spot. The Village is small enough that you can walk between Shelton Park, the Plaza, and the Depot in the time it takes to finish a drink, and the whole point of splitting the booking three ways is that each stage is aiming for a different crowd on a given night.
Friday Nights Live is sponsored in part by Union on Yale and The Back Abbey, both an easy walk from any of the three stages, along with Petiscos Claremont. None of that is an accident. The series has always been built around the idea that you eat and drink your way through the Village on your way to and from the music, not that you park once and stay put.
The Rest of the Week Hasn't Changed
Friday isn't the only fixed point on Claremont's calendar, and it's worth saying plainly that the rest of the Village rhythm is running exactly as it always has. The Sunday Farmers & Artisans Market still sets up on Harvard Avenue from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., across from City Hall. The First Saturday Art Walk still happens on the first Saturday of the month. If you're new to town or just haven't paid attention in a while, Friday Nights Live is the entry point, but it sits inside a week that already has its own shape.
What's different this year is narrow and specific: one person, back after a fifteen-year gap, deciding that a free Friday concert series didn't have to sound like every other free Friday concert series. That's a small thing. It's also the kind of small thing that tells you more about how a place actually runs day to day than a listing description ever could.
Claremont's charm has always been in details like this: a booker who used to go by "Robin Banks" quietly reshaping a decade-old tradition, a museum sharing a building with a concert stage, three blocks that sound completely different from each other on the same night. If you're already living here, that's just Friday. If you're thinking about what it would mean to live here, it's worth knowing that this is the texture you'd be signing up for.
If a season like this one makes you curious about what it would take to actually plant roots in Claremont or one of the neighboring foothill communities, Shannon Brady has spent years walking these same streets and can talk through what your current home is worth in today's market. Get an Instant Home Valuation whenever you're ready to see where you stand.
