JOHNSON CITY – A Five Night Concert and Comedy Festival Series of virtual entertainment of East Tennessee State University students, faculty and staff begins Wednesday, Oct. 7.
These performances will be held virtually on Looped Live every Wednesday night at 9 p.m. Each event will include a live Q&A, and members of the campus community who register will be entered for a chance to win a one-on-one meet-and-greet with an act.
Opening the series on Oct. 7 is Cheat Codes, a Los Angeles-based dance trio crafting floor-filling, radio-ready tunes. Each of the group’s three members – Matthew Russell, Trevor Dahl and Kevin Ford – has deep roots in L.A. and worked on individual projects before joining forces for Cheat Codes. Their different backgrounds helped inform the band’s stylistically varied sound, which can range from warm pop to outright big house bangers.
Rapper Rico Nasty will perform on Oct. 14. Born Maria Kelly in Largo, Maryland, she started rhyming with poetry, which later led to rap. She developed an underground following with early tracks like “Hey Arnold,” “iCarly” and “Iggady (Remix),” and went on to release mixtapes like “Sugar Trap” and “The Rico Story.” Collaborations with Tino Loud and Lil Yachty, including a track that was included on the “Fate of the Furious” soundtrack, propelled her to a larger audience, and she has released a number of mixtapes and singles since that time.
The series continues Oct. 21 with The Aces, an all-female quartet from Provo, Utah, that plays indie pop with an electronic edge. The Aces were formed in 2008 by singer and guitarist Cristal Ramirez, her sister Alisa Ramirez on drums, and their friends Katie Henderson on guitar and McKenna Petty on bass. They released their first album, “When My Heart Felt Volcanic,” in 2018, followed this year by the album “Under My Influence.”
Jonathan Van Ness, an Emmy-nominated television personality, podcaster and hairstylist to the stars, will be featured on Oct. 28. He stars on Netflix’s Emmy Award-winning reboot series “Queer Eye,” on which he is the shows groomer, hair guru and self-care advocate. He also starred on the series “Gay of Thrones,” a witty social commentary series recapping HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” Van Ness hosts an award-winning podcast, “Getting Curious,” a weekly exploration of all the things he is curious about. In 2018, he realized two new passions – for the arts of stand-up comedy and figure skating – and he is currently on his first worldwide comedy tour, “Jonathan Van Ness: Road to Beijing,” where he is going for comedy gold.
Closing the series on Nov. 4 is Chloe Fineman of “Saturday Night Live,” who is making a return appearance for ETSU following her participation in a virtual comedy series in the spring semester. This comedian, actor and impressionist was a 2018 New Face at Montreal’s Just for Laughs Festival and has performed with The Groundlings. In addition to SNL, her TV credits include “Search Party,” “Jane the Virgin,” “Grown-ish,” “Mozart in the Jungle” and Hulu’s “High Fidelity.”
Members of the campus community may click here to register using their school “etsu.edu” email address. Participants only need to register once to be able to watch each show on their desktop computers or mobile devices.
The series is sponsored by Buctainment with campus partners Campus Recreation, Mary V. Jordan Multicultural Center, Military-Affiliated Students, Office of Veterans Affairs, Preview and Orientation Leaders Association, Residence Hall Association and Student Government Association.
For more information, email sao@etsu.edu.
Pictured at top: The Aces, who will perform Oct. 21.