Last year, the band the Des Moines Register called "so Iowan it hurts" but who call themselves "your girlfriend's favorite band" threw caution to the wind and performed at Summerfest here in Eagle Grove, pandemic be damned. The audience (and hopefully any COVID in the air at the outdoor venue) was blown away, even if only 3 of the 4 members could make it.
"Where do you go from there," was the conundrum Summerfest organizer and Chamber of Commerce director Sara Middleton said she faced afterwards. Answer, right back to the masters of "beard pop".
I had the fantastic opportunity to spend the afternoon with the guys that make up the Pork Tornadoes on Saturday as they prepared to play. After helping them unload their truckloads of gear I had the chance to talk with them at length. Maybe, "hanging out" is the better phrase for it.
What was most clearly revealed to me in the hours we spent together, aside from the sheer power of their musicianship as I had the privilege of watching them warm up, was just how dang friendly these four old friends actually are. Especially for a group of guys who put out such a strong rockstar vibe.
"You gotta be friends," said keyboardist and 2nd lead vocalist Jerry Lorenson. "You are coworkers, but you're friends. This is a great group of dudes. All self starters. We understand that we're living the dream right now. Making a living playing music is so hard to do, and the way that we're doing it is so special."
And the way that they're doing it is innovative. A genre of their own making they've branded "beard pop". A mixture of old and new that flows seamlessly along a dad rock vein through classic rock anthems to rap to reworked pop, to faithful covers of surprising songs, and surprising takes on old favorites. The "porknadoes" as they're sometimes called in abbreviation are just as comfortable crooning a Phil Collins masterpiece from the 80's as they are rocking a Coolio track from the 90's, as happy redoing Cyndi Lauper as they are covering Lourdes. And they clearly delight in unearthing the little inspirations and connections they detect in other artist's work, which is no doubt how a few refrains of "turned out for what" ended up in the tail end of their masterful rendition of Rage Against The Machine's "Bulls on Parade".
With such talent on display, I wondered where it all came from. What the A-HA moment was for each of them. And after almost 14 years as a band, where they hope to go from there.
Bassist Cory Talbot recalled that for him it all started with catching his Father playing guitar. "He had Nirvana Unplugged on and was playing guitar, and I was like 'can I have one?'" Talbot drew a straight line from there, to the high school talent show in his senior year, to forming the Pork Tornadoes. "It was my first time singing in front of people," Talbot related. "I was only the singer because I was the only one who could sing. But I wanted to be the drummer – who ended up being Mike Schulte."
For Schulte, it began with a classic music movie, The Blues Brothers. "There was the chase scene through the mall," Schulte recalled, "and at one point a cop car crashed into a drum set, in the window of a music store. I was intrigued with the sound it made! And my Uncle had a drum set."
Lead singer Mason Greve can't actually recall when he first got started in music. His mother was a music teacher and he had his first concert at age 5. With a chuckle he related thinking it was weird, when he was a child, when he would go to other kids houses for birthday parties, "and the other families didn't sing 'Happy Birthday' in 16 part harmony".
That talent led Greve to tape an appearance on NBC's The Voice, which he said was a "springboard" for his career, and "an amazing experience." "I got to network with a lot of musicians," Greve said. But still, he came back to the Pork Tornadoes.
Keyboardist Jerry Lorenson was more interested in talking about where he hopes his career is going, than where it started out. "If I ever get to be on Sesame Street, then that will be the pinnacle, the zenith of my career to me," Lorenson said. And, he said, he came very close when the students at the Cornell College of Theatre and Dance "turned us into puppets" for a 2020 New Year's Eve special concert. "I had to call the kids in," Lorenson said. "I was like 'look, Daddy's on Sesame Street!" Or, close enough, he added with a grin.
Schulte thinks that Lorenson joining the Porknadoes was what helped the band reach its zenith. "Jerry could be a frontman in any band in Iowa," Schulte said. "But for him to come in and take 2nd frontman lets Mason get a few breaks, and really brought things together to what we are today."
"Everyone really is talented at their instruments," Lorenson said, "but what really bonds us tight is to get along together as well as we do."
After an opening set by singer songwriter Scott Kirkwood, the Pork Tornadoes took the stage around 7:30 and played past 11 at night, with a short break in the middle. Every song in the tour de force performance was a phenomenon and the crowd ended the night cheering wildly. With high points including a pitch perfect cover of "Sail" by AWOLNATION, and a refreshing modernized take on Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight."
And when the band finally said goodnight after more than 3 hours rocking out, the crowd roared, chanting "one more song! One more song!" With one voice even calling for "infinity more songs!"
"So, what you're saying is you want one more song," Lorenson said as the band took the stage again for an encore, noting that they really did have to leave it at just one more song because drummer Mike Schulte was expecting to become a Dad early the next morning. Which was especially fitting, considering the next day was Father's Day.
Then the band broke out their masterful rendition of "Bulls on Parade" to end strong. But before they left the stage, Dad Rocker to be Schulte put the exclamation mark on a perfect show when he crossed the stage straight to the person who'd been calling for an "infinity" encore, to give her his drumstick.
