encoreNOW is a bi-weekly column by Paul Rellinger where he features upcoming music, theatre, film, and performing arts events and news from across the Kawarthas.
This week, Paul highlights hard rockers The Damn Truth at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre, Public Energy’s presentation of Laura Taler’s dance films the village trilogy and Matryoshka Crush at the Art Gallery of Peterborough, The Maple Blues Revue at Peterborough’s Market Hall, the Lakefield Literary Society’s presentation of author Maurice Switzer and his book Sons of Tecumseh, new music from Nicholas Campbell and the Metre Cheaters at Peterborough’s Market Hall, and the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s “Inspired” concert at Showplace.
The Damn Truth tells no lies at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre
VIDEO: “Be Somebody” – The Damn Truth
If you’re yearning for a night of live music that’s turned up a notch, you want to be at Lindsay’s FLATO Academy Theatre on Friday (March 27).
Just back from an East Coast tour opening for Live and Big Wreck, The Damn Truth is headlining, bringing to the fore the chest-thumping rock explosion that’s been the source of rave reviews in Europe, where the band has toured frequently.
The Montreal-based quartet — singer/guitarist Lee-la Baum backed by lead guitarist Tom Shemer, bassist PY Letellier, and drummer Dave Traina — will no doubt perform songs featured on their 2025 self-titled album. That’s a good thing. The album is nominated for a 2026 Juno Award.
The Damn Truth’s debut album, Dear in the Headlights, was released independently in 2012. Come 2016, signed to Fineline Records, Devilish Folk was released as the follow-up and gained some serious attention, including that of ZZ Top, which had the band join them as the opening act for its 2018 international tour.
However, things were turned up a huge notch in 2019 when Winnipeg-born multi-Juno and Grammy award-winning producer Bob Rock reached out to the band. The result was the 2021 album Now or Nowhere which brought The Damn Truth extensive European radio airplay and touring opportunities. Rock also produced the latest album, which features the band’s latest single, “Be Somebody.”
The Damn Truth is here to tell us that driving in-your-face roc still holds a firm place on the crowded popular music menu and fans of the genre abound. As Baum recently told me during an interview for kawarthaNOW, “The idea of The Damn Truth is simplicity and rock and roll and in your face. Here we are, doing what we do. That’s our truth. Kind of what you see is what you get.”
Tickets to the 8 p.m. concert cost $33 all-in at www.flatoacademytheatre.com/whats-on/the-damn-truth.
Public Energy screens Laura Taler’s dance films at the Art Gallery of Peterborough
VIDEO: Excerpt from “the village trilogy” (1995)
Performance, film, sound, sculpture — Laura Taler’s mastery of a variety of mediums has brought her wide acclaim and rightly so.
The Romanian-born Canadian artist began her career as a contemporary dance choreographer before setting her sights on filmmaking and visual art while staying true to her exploration of how memory and history are linked to movement, and how the body is able to carry the past without being oppressed by it.
On Friday (March 27) at the Art Gallery of Peterborough on Crescent Street, Public Energy Performing Arts will welcome Taler as she marks 30 years since her creation of the seminal dance film the village trilogy.
The moving and poetic portrayal of the search for home told through the bodies of eight dancers speaks to the millions of people uprooted through emigration over the past century through the reinterpretation of the physical characteristics of early cinema.
the village trilogy has won various awards, including Best Experimental Film at the Toronto Worldwide Short Film Festival.
If that’s not enough, Taler will also screen her latest work, Matryoshka Crush. The film sees poison, exorcism, gender trouble, song and dance come together, the result being a darkly funny and disturbing tale of intense yearning.
Following the screenings, there will be a discussion with Taler facilitated by local writer and theatre maker Kate Story.
Tickets to the 7 p.m. double screening are available at sliding scale pricing of $10, $15, or $20 plus fees at publicenergy.ca/performance/the-village-trilogy-laura-taler.
The Maple Blues Revue set to kick it at Peterborough stop
VIDEO: “Savona Shuffle” – The Maple Blues Revue
It’s not every day that a Canadian blues music “super group” schedules a Peterborough stop, so when that does happen it should catch, and keep, the attention of fans of the genre.
Set to headline at the Market Hall Performing Arts Centre on Saturday (March 28), The Maple Blues Revue features Canada’s most respected blues players, many of them multiple Maple Blues Award and Juno Award nominees and winners.
With lead vocals provided by Jay Douglas, Samantha Martin, and Suzie Vinnick, the band features a full brass section along with the harmonica mastery of two-time Juno Award recipient Al Lerman.
Also in the mix is band leader and bassist Gary Kendall, a former longtime member of The Downchild Blues Band who produced Let’s Go, the first of The Maple Blues Revue’s two albums to date.
Simply put, this 12-member blues tour de force brings together Canadian blues music’s best of the best. In a world where there are few guarantees, this concert is sure to deliver on a scale that will be memorable long after the last note is played.
Tickets to the 8 p.m. concert cost $60 at www.markethall.org.
Author Maurice Switzer talks all things “Sons of Tecumseh” in Lakefield
While the Lakefield Literary Festival is still quite a ways off, set for July 17 and 18 in the village, those behind the popular annual celebration of the written word aren’t sitting idle during their off-season.
On Thursday, April 9 at Lakefield College School’s Bryan Jones Theatre, the festival will welcome Maurice Switzer, the author of Sons of Tecumseh, for a conversation moderated by Dr. Jackson Pind, assistant professor of Indigenous methodologies at Trent University’s Chanie Wenjack School of Indigenous Studies.
Released last September, Sons of Tecumseh explores Indigenous political unity in Canada. It connects the legacy of the historic Shawnee leader Tecumseh to a fictional, modern-day Indigenous leader attempting to navigate challenges with colonial government systems.
The book’s story focuses on contemporary First Nations issues, featuring a character named Peshu Butler, a descendant of Tecumseh, who works for a national Indigenous organization. Themes addressed include the under-representation of First Nations, eroded rights, and the need for unity, with parallels drawn between 19th-century and modern challenges. Switzer wrote the work to spark conversation about making First Nations politics more relevant to modern citizens.
A citizen of the Mississaugas of Alderville First Nation where his maternal grandfather Moses Muskrat Marsden served as chief from 1904-09, Switzer is a journalist, historian, and educator who has written several books on treaty education, including We are All Treaty People. In addition to his writing, Switzer has been a member of the Human Rights Commission, publisher and editor at five Canadian newspapers, communications director for the Assembly of First Nations, and is adjunct professor at Laurentian University.
Tickets to the 7 p.m. event cost $30 at Happenstance Books and Yarns in Lakefield, or order online at lakefieldliteraryfestival.com.
Nicholas Campbell and The Metre Cheaters showcase new music at Market Hall in Peterborough
VIDEO: “Hot Rod Daddy” – Nicholas Campbell and The Metre Cheaters (2026)
Call me crazy, but it’s especially noteworthy when an uber-talented Peterborough musician headlines a hometown show.
That will be the case on Friday, April 10 at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre when rockabilly singer and guitarist Nicholas Campbell leads The Metre Cheaters through their paces. The local show marks one stop of a spring tour heralding the release of the band’s third album People Like To Talk.
Campbell first picked up a guitar at age 10 and never put it down on his way to playing gigs just a year later. By the time his debut album Livin’ and Other Western Ideas was released in 2021, his talent as a rockabilly, Western swing, and honky-tonk performer was well honed. Three years later, his working with James McKenty on the follow-up album Gonna Have A Ball Tonight took things to a whole other level.
With The Metre Cheaters, Campbell is always playing somewhere to the tune of some 200 shows yearly. People Like To Talk has added new fuel to a relentless engine powered, in part, by the new singles “He Said She Said,” “Flower Shops,” “I’ll Regret It In The Morning,” and the title track.
Tickets to Campbell’s 8 p.m. concert, which will feature guest performer Jamie Oliver aka The County Crooner, cost $35 at www.markethall.org.
Accomplished Canadian flutist Gillian Derer joins the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra for “Inspired”
VIDEO: “An American in Paris” by George Gershwin performed by Gillian Derer (2025)
Since day one, the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra (PSO) has prioritized the presentation of top Canadian classical music performers as a big part of its seasonal schedule of concerts.
That will again be very much the case for a matinee concert on Sunday, April 12 at Showplace Performance Centre when “Inspired” welcomes spring and special guest flutist Gillian Derer, whose talent has earned her several accolades.
Most recently, Derrer was named the Absolute First Prize winner at the 2023 Canadian International Music Competition (2023), and a Gold Prize winner at the Schubert International Music Competition, also in 2023. A 2021-2022 fellow of the Magisterra Soloists, Derrer has performed across Canada in various ensembles, including with her string trio Disinvolto Trio and her flute and harp duo Affettuoso Duo.
“Inspired” will see Derrer join the PSO to perform Mozart’s crystalline Flute Concerto No. 1. The program will also showcase some of the PSO’s own soloists in the Canadian classics Postcards from the Sky by Marjan Mozetich and Akasha/Sky by Glen Buhr. The orchestra will also perform Ottorino Respighi’s Botticelli Triptych and Igor Stravinsky’s love letter to Italy, Pulcinella Suite.
In addition, Ottorino Respighi’s testament to the genius of Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli will be featured in Botticelli Triptych, and then Igor Stravinsky’s love letter to Italy will come to life via Pulcinella Suite.
Prior to the 3 p.m. concert, PSO music director and conductor Michael Newnham will take to the Showplace stage at 2:15 p.m. to chat with the audience about the afternoon’s program, and audience members are invited to the lower-level Cogeco Studio during intermission to join Maestro Newnham and the musicians.
Tickets are $36, $50, or $57 depending on where you sit, with all student tickets costing $15, and are available at thepso.org/inspired.
Encore
- There are big shoes to fill, and then there’s the challenge of filling Syd Birrell’s shoes. When the beloved artistic director and conductor of the Peterborough Singers called it a day in December after 35 years of leading the choral group, a national search was launched for his successor. That hunt came to an end with the naming of Shawn Grenke to the position. The Belleville native takes the helm of the Peterborough Singers July 1st, but he’s already got the wheels turning in regards to what the 2026-27 concert season will look and sound like. Details are to come, but we can be sure Grenke’s respect for Birrell, and the Peterborough Singers, ensures the legacy of the choral group will be front of mind – something that will translate into yet another season of memorable concert performances.
- With the recent announcement that Jethro’s in downtown Peterborough will soon close its doors, many are dealing with the pending loss of yet another live music venue. That’s especially true for those who regularly attended the popular Sunday afternoon blues jam that weekly brought to the stage a truly delightful mix of veteran players and up-and-coming musicians and singers. Jam founder Al Black has indicated the blues jam may resurface at another venue but that’s not a certainty. What is known is the final blues jam at the Hunter Street West pub will be held April 12 with the Jethro’s Blues Jam All-Stars doing the honours. It promises to be quite an afternoon of cheers and, ya, some tears.
