We close out the year and Oshawa’s centennial with a musical celebration of the city itself. There are so many shows featuring homegrown talent that it's among the best times to truly hear the voice of this one-hundred-year-old city. The holidays are a time to gather with family, and this city’s family of musicians will also be gathering, of course, and with cause.
On Sunday, December 8, the Rotary Clubs of Durham present their annual Concert to Feed the Need at the Biltmore Theatre. This matinee show, with a 2 p.m. start, features a diverse array of artists from across Oshawa and the Durham Region, including Cale Crowe, Matt Doran, Andy Earle, New Moon Junction, Alicia Robicheau, Kalista Wilson, and Devid Shewchuk.
Another gathering for a good cause happens at Kops Records on King St. on Saturday, December 21. Local bands Viviana and Catbag will perform in the early afternoon with several special friends to help raise funds for Simcoe Hall Settlement House. These bands had previously busked for the same charity during the city’s preeminent gathering, the Convergence Music & Art Festival 2024.
We should begin at the end of the year this time, as the most excellent news is that Oshawa-based Juno winners Crown Lands will celebrate New Year’s Eve at the Bond St Events Centre, making good on a cancellation for the same date last year. Crown Lands is a two-piece prog-rock outfit that harkens back to a 70s-era sound (think Rush and Led Zeppelin) while dealing with much more current affairs and issues in its lyrics. Joining them will be Brkn Love and Excuses Excuses, who were also featured at Convergence.
On the same eve at the Biltmore Theatre, the Professors of Funk, a supergroup of local musicians, will ring in the new year with as much soul as they can muster, which is a funkin’ lot of soul!
Working our way back to the beginning, Canada’s sweethearts in the Blue Rodeo will be playing at The Tribute Communities Centre on Saturday, December 28. It is practically a hometown show for the band, or at least Greg Keelor, who lives on the other side of Hwy 115 on his farm, where the band recorded several albums, including, of course, the iconic Five Days In July, an album in part inspired by the land around them. That’s going to be a heck of an Oshawa Saturday night as Canadian punk rock stalwarts Dayglo Abortions are rolling into the TwoTwoTwo with pals Blackout and Random Killing, which features Oshawa rad dude Chris Hill on the kit.
Friday, December 20, sees the iconic black grass three-piece The Stables team up with the sparkler king B.A. Johnston, for a fun-filled night of shenanigans, plus Lighthouse, featuring Dan Clancy (no stranger to Oshawa) on vocals, teams up with the Ontario Philharmonic at the Regent Theatre. On one street, on one night, the maximum and the minimum of the Oshawa music scene, the highbrow and the lowbrow, and the Shwarock City is unibrow when it comes to music.
On Monday, December 16, The Anti-Queens, who also performed at Convergence, will be at the Biltmore Theatre with fellow punks War On Women and Pkew Pkew Pkew.
Sunday, December 15, presents an opportunity to really get a handle on where the city’s music is with a Battle of the Bands at BondSt. Event Centre. Several of the city’s up-and-coming star acts will vie for the $1000 cash prize, including Far From Infamy, Life of Exile, Wolves On Tape, Maitreya, and Radium.
Wolves On Tape will also be involved at Bond St. Event Centre when they join with Judgement, Hialeah, Contour, and Theo John for a food drive for Simcoe Hall Settlement House. This will be an acoustic set by the bands involved.
So, if you are looking to get involved with Oshawa’s thriving music community, this December is the month to do it.
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