TheEnd is expecting 1,500 to 2,000 students to fill the Campus Commons Friday night to the singing and rapping musical duo MTKO.
“We started asking for student feedback about spring concerts. Students were interested in MTKO, and we were able to reach out to them,” said Brad Thompson, student activities and marketing coordinator.
The group name is short for the initials of group members Malcolm Kelley and Tony Oller. It also stands for what they viewed their stereotypes to be in high school (misfit kids and total outcasts), according to the Edge, a New Zealand based online radio station.
The duo is taking over the charts and gaining popularity in the United States and all over the world. Their second single, “Classic,” peaked at No.14 on the U.S. charts in summer 2014, according to the U.S. Billboard website.
Thompson said theEnd contacted the band and everything fell into place.
“It’s like a magical cocktail of bands that are available at the time you need them and the budget you need them. It just happened to work out that they were free for a Friday that we wanted,” Thompson said about choosing MKTO to perform.
Musicians Oller and Kelley met in 2010 while filming the Nickelodeon movie “Gigantic” and started making music together soon after. They were then picked up by Columbia Records in 2013.
Thompson said theEnd is expecting a big turnout for the concert.
“We do a reservation for tickets ahead of time,” Thompson said. “TheEnd doesn’t require tickets for outdoor shows, but we do that to get an idea and we’ve already had almost 1,000 people reserve their ticket.”
Thompson said if students reserve their ticket, theEnd will draw from the tickets for a chance to meet MKTO.
TheEnd started out with the intention of giving students alternatives to going out on the weekends by providing students with on-campus musicians, actors and comedians, Thompson said.
“TheEnd has been very successful, I would say. It takes a long time to shape a culture, and we’ve had some hits and misses there. But our numbers are really strong overall,” Thompson said.
The spring football game, which is also on Friday evening, is supposed to end around 9 p.m. and students are encouraged to attend the concert afterward, Thompson said.
The concert will open with Milwaukee-based band Vinyl Theater, an indie and electronic group made up of four young men, Thompson said.
The concert begins at 10 p.m. and should last until midnight.
“It’s encouraging to me, because when we started theEnd, nobody thought it would work, but the responses have been just great,” Thompson said.