Who's the Duo Playing the Viral Surprise Concert at Cheesman Park?

Musicians Mitch Marsico and Orono are walking around Cheesman Park as we speak, looking for a place to set up for their surprise concert at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, September 25. The two, who perform under the moniker cheese touch, don't know how many people will show up — and it could be quite a lot.

It started with a TikTok that had the energy of a 2013 viral Vine video. Orono and Marsico posted the short, deadpan-comical clip about the pop-up show on September 22; within three days, it had nearly 70,000 views and more than 1K shares.

Orono is used to playing in front of large crowds of up to 10,000 people, she says, given her experience in the band Superorganism. "That's still kind of going, but it's kind of taking a break," Orono explains of Superorganism. "Cheese touch is my main thing right now. We put out our first single last week."
That single, "Pool," included a music video, as well. The song is true indie, the kind you'd hear in a flick starring Michael Cera or Zooey Deschanel — soothing yet quirky, with such lyrics as "The smell of chlorine gets me horny."

We can't wait to hear the bluegrass version of that, which is what you'll get at the Cheesman show. For the Cheesman Park set, the duo will perform with friends from Denver who formed a new local bluegrass group called Stumps and Logs. "Any time we play somewhere, it'll be a different version of cheese touch," Marsico adds. "So this is like the Colorado bluegrass version of our songs."

The next day, Marsico and Orono will take off for the East Coast, where they'll play shows at other spots with "cheese" (or in the case of the park, "chees") in the name. "We're releasing a single a month and a music video a month," Marsico adds, "and doing these free public shows."

The nomadic nature of the group — and a large swath of friends — will have Orono and Marsico stopping in all sorts of cities and towns. "We're based wherever someone has a couch," Marsico laughs. "I think our Spotify says we're located in Beverly Hills."

The two met via Instagram, and after working on a song together a year ago, Orono and Marsico met in person for the first time to make a music video in New Jersey this summer. They started making music together and formed cheese touch before Orono returned to her hometown in Japan for a spell. Within a couple months, she texted Marsico that she would be going to L.A. "You want to come out and give this a go?" he remembers her asking.

At first, they almost named the band Incels, before realizing the tongue-in-cheek humor might not be apparent to everyone (imagine a friend asking you if you wanted to go see a group called the 4chans?). They landed on cheese touch: "We were like, 'Cheese touch sounds pretty epic, let's just go with that,'" Mitch recalls with a laugh. "And now we just play at cheese-related venues. One of our next shows is going to be a cheese club at Rutgers University. I don't know how long we'll play at cheese venues..."

"Forever," Orono asserts.

Cheese touch plays Cheesman Park at 7 p.m. tonight, September 25. Follow the band's Instagram to see the exact location.