Spring Sounds in Oshawa: A Season of Music in Shwarock City
- Will McGuirk
- Apr 1
- 3 min read
Spring in Oshawa? Yes, an amazing time, a time of wonder, a time to once again enjoy what grows so well here. And in Oshawa, that means music. We grow music in this city. Always have. Always will. Something in the Shwater, maybe.
And what Oshawa is growing is showing up downtown as the Shwarock City becomes one of the go-to music destinations in the Region and East GTA. Multiple venues where one can experience the murmurings of emerging bands, the blossoming of others, and those who rise high towards the stars, so many locally grown.
Sum 41 is one of the biggest punk bands and was originally formed in Ajax in 1996. They were recently inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. The band’s origins in Durham Region will be celebrated at the Biltmore Theatre on Sunday, April 12, when Crosswalk Entertainment presents Hometown Sounds: SUM 41 Edition. Performers will cover songs of Sum 41 as well as their own material. Onstage acts include Byrdy, James Wilson, Jeza Welz, Candace & Michael, Jordin’s ID, and Will Gillespie.
Sum41 bassist Dave Brownsound is in at the Biltmore Theatre with a different band, punk horror show Black Cat Attack. Val Knox of Anti-Queens was also Black Cat Attack back in the day. The band is reforming for a gig on Friday, April 24, 2026. Also on the bill are Brutal Youth, Aciidz, and RPO.
Scenes flourish when those who grew up and out return to replenish the soil. Shwarock City alumni Brownsound and Val Knox know that giving back is very much part of a sustainable music community, such as exists in Oshawa.
The music community also gives back on Saturday, April 11, when local acts My Friend The Skeleton, Plz Respond, Proof of Dog, and Karl Escape come together to raise money for the Durham Rape Crisis Centre and AIDS Committee of Durham Region, at the Biltmore Theatre once again.
Bond St Events Centre has been planting seeds in the city’s music community via their weekly Open Mics, their accommodation of young emerging DJs every month, and through their bi-weekly Open Band Jams held at the basement club, TwoTwoTwo. This support structure for growing bands is extended to a young singer/songwriter from Bethany, ON, Hunter James, who will be launching his new EP ‘Thick Of It’ on Friday, April 10. Opening will be Haley McNeil.
But it's not all just new shoots coming up this Easter; there are also those stalwart, established roots music acts. Platinum-selling Country artist Lee Brice will be performing at the Tribute Communities Centre on his Sunriser Tour. Joining him are Brett Kissel, another Platinum-selling Country artist, and emerging artist Grace Tyler. In the same venue, alt-rockers Goo Goo Dolls perform on Wednesday, April 1, with special guests Dashboard Confessional.
And one can’t get much rootsier than Blue Rodeo co-founder, Jim Cuddy, who will be performing at the Regent Theatre on Sunday, April 19. Blue Rodeo’s other founder is Greg Keelor, who lives just east of Hwy 115 on his property where the band recorded their seminal album Five Days In July. The album was inspired by the land around them, and the sound on the record is very much one that has deep fibrous roots in the Durham Region, one which we in Oshawa call Black Grass. That sound can be found in national acts such as the cowpunk of Cuff The Duke, the doom folk of Timber Timbre, and even the acoustic jams of HipHop artist K-Os.
As the days lengthen and the nights heat up, enjoy the many locally grown artists in locally owned venues and dig into what makes Oshawa such a lush soundscape.
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