[photo credit: Levitt VIBE Pasadena Music Series]
The Lao Tizer Band performs Saturday, Aug. 15, at Memorial Park as part of the Levitt VIBE Pasadena Music Series, the free summer concert program that returned this year to the park’s 1930 band shell — known locally as the “Gold Shell” — for the first time since 2017. Organizers say it is the band’s debut in the series.
The concert is one of 10 free Saturday shows running through Sept. 12 at the landmark at 85 East Holly Street in Old Pasadena. The band shell, built in 1930 and dedicated by the American Legion that Memorial Day, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places within the Pasadena Civic Center Historic District. The series is presented by the Pasadena Recreation and Parks Foundation and the city’s Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department, in partnership with the Old Pasadena Management District, according to a City of Pasadena release. Each headliner is preceded by an opening “Vibe Set” featuring local and emerging artists, the release said.
The program runs on a Levitt VIBE matching grant that the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation awarded the local foundation on Nov. 18, 2025 — up to $40,000 a year for three years, or up to $120,000 through 2028 — which the foundation must match annually. Levitt-branded concerts last ran at the shell from 2003 to 2017. The Levitt Foundation describes the revived series as a shared gathering space in the wake of the January 2025 Eaton Fire, which destroyed much of neighboring Altadena and damaged parts of Pasadena, with a focus on Northwest Pasadena.
The Lao Tizer Band is a Los Angeles ensemble led by keyboardist and composer Lao Tizer, a native of Boulder, Colorado. According to the band’s promotional materials, the group is an Oasis Jazz Award “Jazz Group of the Year” nominee and will perform music from its 2024 album Amplify, which the materials describe as nine tracks — five vocal and four instrumental — recorded live at EastWest Studios in Hollywood. The band lists its Pasadena lineup as American Idol vocalist Elliott Yamin, saxophonist Danny Janklow, drummer Gene Coye, bassist Anthony Crawford and percussionist Joey De Leon.
Need to Know: The Levitt VIBE Pasadena Music Series presents the Lao Tizer Band on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026, from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at the Memorial Park band shell, 85 East Holly Street, Pasadena. Admission is free and open to all ages, and no tickets are required, according to the city. The Metro A Line’s Memorial Park station sits on the same street, at Holly Street and Arroyo Parkway. Accessibility accommodations can be requested at CSC@CityOfPasadena.net or (626) 744-7311. Additional program details are posted at levittvibepasadenamusicseries.com/aug-15.
Nearly a century after the American Legion dedicated the shell on a Memorial Day, its arch will hold a Saturday night’s worth of sound once more.
Levitt VIBE Pasadena Music Series: The Lao Tizer Band — Saturday, August 15, 2026, 6–10 p.m. |Link: https://levittvibepasadenamusicseries.com/aug-15 Antique Store
