Past Concert Archive

McCabe’s first concert happened because two musicians needed help. In February 1969, Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten and Mike Seeger arrived in Los Angeles for a Royce Hall concert that got canceled, leaving them without the money to get back east. McCabe’s did what McCabe’s would keep doing: moved things around, covered the windows, spread the word, and turned the shop into a room for music. On February 23, 1969, Cotten and Seeger played on a makeshift stage inside the guitar shop. A few weeks later, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott played from the repair workbenches, with Arlo Guthrie joining one night. The official concert series followed later that year, with Bryndle as the headliner and Jackson Browne opening.

The point was never only to sell guitars. Longtime head honcho Bob Riskin (now retired) described McCabe’s as a place where people could buy instruments, learn to play them, get them fixed, find books and recordings, and listen to performers, all under one roof. That mix is still the heart of the place: retail floor, repair bench, lesson rooms, and back-room stage feeding one another. The store got people playing. The concerts gave those players a reason to listen harder.