Pork Tornadoes Descend Upon Omaha

Pork Tornadoes Descend Upon Omaha

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Before I actually get on vacation. Then a guy, when
I see him perform with his band, The Pork Tornadoes,
he makes me feel like I'm on vacation. It is
the drummer of The Pork Tornadoes as well as one
of the esteemed hosts of the Confused Breakfast podcast. His
name is Mike Shelty and he is joining us on
the phone line.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Mike, what's up man, Hey man.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Good to be here. And I'm very jealous as you're
going on a vacation. I have a two and a
half year old and a seven month old, so there's
no vacations in my future whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Oh, that's depressing. Although I gotta say, I gotta say
it seems like you're still living pretty good because I
see you guys performing all over the place these days.
How Like, before we talk about you know, your show,
you're coming up here on Saturday. What's the schedule look
like for the Pork Tornadoes or the Peteaser. However, you

(00:50):
guys talk about yourselves.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
So this, I mean, this summer, this spring, summer, fall
is pretty much completely booked for us. It is our
official pretty much party that we bring to the world.
Is that Iowa Midwest small town festival show, right, you know,
so it's summertime. The whole town's getting together for whatever
sour crowd days, hot dog days, whatever your town festival is.

(01:15):
That is our bread and butter, and we are locked
and loaded ready to roll.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
So awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
You guys have kind of made Omaha a regular stop.
You've come a couple of times a year here since
I moved, and I was so happy to see that because,
you know, being from Iowa, I had a chance to
see you guys regularly because you're Iowa based band. But
you've been making more and more trips over here to
the Omaha area. And what do you have to say
about the great people here in Omaha who's been going

(01:41):
and seen you at Slowdown.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
It's Omaha has easily been one of our favorite towns
and shows that we've added in the last couple of years.
We knew we wanted to make our way that way,
you know, right on the border there, close to us,
within driving distance, and Omaha did not disappoint from our
first show that we played there back in like only
one twenty two to now with this upcoming show at

(02:03):
the Slow Down on Friday, I mean, the response has
been out of this world, and it helps to have
such incredible music venues like Omaha does. So it's just
a it's a treat to be in that town and
play music for everybody there.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
All right, we can't wait.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
So for people who are like his bands called what
the pork Tornadoes, we should probably start there because I
know there's a lot of people that are listening like
they're called the pork Tornadoes.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
Why exactly, it's just such, it's in seventeen years. We
can't change it. That is the kiss of death when
you change your band name. So we're stuck with it.
But it started as a joke, right. We'd come up
with all these stupid band names when we were playing
in college for our friends, and we decided that changing
your band name every show is probably not a good idea,

(02:49):
as you would assume in marketing and advertising. So we said,
whatever our next bad band name that we come up with,
that's the one will stick with. And we had heard
we had heard that a tornado had hit a farm
on the radio, and the wacky DJ was like, it
was a pork tornado. Who And we said, well, that's
that's a terrible name. Let's go with that full well,

(03:09):
not assuming at all that we would be here seventeen
years later playing places like the Beautiful slow Down and
just having to live with the name, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, it's funny at least.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
I mean, people are not going to forget it, so
for whatever that's worth. Mike Schalty is the drummer for
the Port Tornado's joining us on the phone line here.
People are like, Okay, so you play festivals and you've
got a crazy, weird name, but what music do you play?
And it's hard for me to describe other than the
fact it's just like a really awesome rock version of

(03:41):
all of your favorite songs from basically any era of
your lifetime.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Is that kind of accurate.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yeah, it's just we didn't set up to play a
particular style. It's just sort of evolved this way. But
I mean a good way to describe it that I
found is it's like the Midwest weather. It's like the
Omaha weather or the Iowa weather. If you don't like it,
just wait a little bit longer kind of a thing,
because that's kind of what our shows like. It's it's
anything from the eighties through today, rock, pop, country, hip hop,

(04:12):
but like you said, it's it's sort of reimagined, right,
It's it's Britney Spears but with like crunchy rock guitar
added to it and three part harmonies, and it's just
it's really something you just got to see in firston,
I think to understand what you're getting into.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, And that's the other thing too.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
I bring so many people to see you guys, you know,
whether it's at the Allowa State Fair or at the Slowdown,
Like I just I'm always trying to bring my friends
and my neighbors, like you guys have to see this band.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
It's so much fun.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
And that's just one one of the cool things about
what you guys do is it really is like, hey,
if you're not feeling you know this one song, can
we spoil some of the songs by chance? Like yeah,
all right, So so you play some like the Killers
for instance, like somebody told me and it's awesome, and
I'm a huge Killer fan, so like I'm all the
way down, like I'm not a real Killers fan. And
then you play Lizzo next, and people.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Like, whoa Lizo? That's crazy?

Speaker 1 (05:07):
And then you know somebody mighty, I'm not a big
Lizzo fan or whatever, and then you start playing like
Taylor Swift and they're like, wait, well, well that's crazy,
and then you're playing Phil Collins. Like it's hard to
describe to people, just like the scope here, So what's
the you know, how often are you putting new stuff
in here? Because it feels like all these songs that
you guys kind of arrange and play people just are
in love with. How do you make room in the

(05:29):
set for some of the new stuff that you want
to play.

Speaker 3 (05:31):
That's been the hardest part, right is all these songs
that are just such classics. There are songs that everybody
knows in the air tonight, Tennessee Whiskey you know, Morgan
Wall and Whiskey Glasses, Like, there're just these songs that
are ingrained in people's heads. They love them. You get
a few cocktails, you can't help but sing along. But
we like to add new songs, I mean every couple

(05:53):
of seats, you know, like every spring we're adding new songs,
every fall we're ad new songs. So we've got a
few new ones that we're bringing to Omaha that you've
not played in that city yet, And I'm pretty excited
about it. The response has been through the roof from people.
We've been doing Benson Boonez Beautiful things but rocked up
pretty hard. It's one of those songs that not many
people can sing except for our singers, so we figure

(06:16):
we might as well go after it. I've got a
new rap Medley on the horizon. We're doing Lose Control
by Teddy Swims. So we just we just take songs
that we love that the general public loves and throw
them out there and see if people dig it live.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
You know, Yeah, it's so cool. How does that process go?
You know, you talk so much about, you know, just
the creative process for anybody, especially you guys. Though you
have the art already there, you like the song, but
then you guys kind of arrange it and you talk
about Medley's and stuff you have like mashups and stuff
do you guys do, which makes people always kind of

(06:50):
on their toes and guessing that's what's going on next?
How like like, how does that creative process work? Does
do one of you guys just kind of like bring
an idea and then it just kind of evolves there?

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Or how does that work?

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, that's exactly right. Somebody has an idea like I
got this new rap medley that I'm putting together of
some ninety hip hop and I kind of composed it.
I put it together. I said, guys, learn your parts,
here's the key, let's figure this out, let's start running
it in sound check. And you know what I'd tell you,
probably over the last ten years, I bet you won
one out of four songs that we end up performing

(07:21):
sticks around. I mean, sometimes you just can't predict the
way it will affect people live versus what they're hearing
on the radio. We've had, we've had a few swings
and missus where we thought for sure that song was
just gonna be the next Tennessee whiskey that we have.
And you know, sometimes it doesn't work. We give it
three times, we give it usually three shows. See how

(07:43):
the reaction is. If people are blah blah blah nah
then it then it usually makes its way back out
of the set list and makes room for another one.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Mike Chelty is the drummer of a band called The
Poor Tornado. Is playing it slow down this Saturday, which
you know I would I would get your Is.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
It Friday Friday?

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, sorry, my bad I'm going to Amsterdam tomorrow, so
the days could be like all the same.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
I'm glad that you corrected me.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
The so so Friday night people can go to the
Slowdown and check you guys out. Get your tickets fast though,
because you want to make sure that you're not gonna
miss out, because man, it's been falling there the last
couple of times I've seen you at the Slowdown. But
I wanted to ask you about your favorite song ever,
because I've done this like six times now. Every time
I talk to you is like, what's your favorite song ever?

(08:30):
Or what's the best song ever? And you always have
a different answer. Like a true music fan of music,
You're always just like what are you vibing with?

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Or what are you feeling?

Speaker 1 (08:39):
So I'm gonna ask Mike Schulti again what are you feeling?
Is like your favorite song out there right now, from
any time frame, any era.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Okay, So we have done this before, and I know
some answers I've given you, but I cannot remember exactly,
and I do want to give you a different one
than normal, So I think I think right now today
deaf Tones Digital bath.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Ooh okay, yeah, that is a new one. I didn't
expect that one.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
Like I've said twenty one pilots and maybe the Midnight
before to you because I remember we yeah one right.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yes, sir, yeah wow death Tones.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
Okay, we're gonna to write that one down and incorporate
that into our show here.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
That's good.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
One of my favorite drum beats of all time. A
Cunningham is a master and that song is his opus
for sure.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Oh gosh, I love that. And this is coming from
a guy you know, he knows his music, Mike Schulte.
You also know your pop culture. I wanted to touch
on this. We've not actually ever talked about this in
any time that I talked to you, but you Got.
You're part of a podcast called The Confused Breakfast, and
I mean, you guys have hundreds of thousands of people
that check this out. And I want people to listen
to my podcast page too, you know, if they're not

(09:49):
listening to the show, you know, live the Emory Songer podcast.
But I am a podcast aholic. I love listening to
other people's podcasts, especially with stuff that I love, and
you Got I have really nailed something with this Confused
Breakfast and nostalgia for people that are you know my
age or you know you're not much older.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Than I am.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
How do you best describe what you guys talk about,
because they're really really fun conversations.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
We I don't know it just we sort of found
this little niche of nostalgia, like you said, where we
we love movies from the eighties, nineties, two thousands. Right.
We all have these memories of childhood of just this
movie like Three Ninjas or Blank Check or something that
you loved as a kid. You and your siblings watched
it and memorized every line, and we've decided that, well,

(10:35):
every week we pick a movie from that era and
we dissect it modern day. Right, So like strip Away
in the nostalgia and go, is this movie actually as
good as we remember it? And sometimes it's way better
than we remember, you know, like a movie like The
Breakfast Club. I hated it as a kid. I didn't
understand it. I had no recollection of like why people

(10:56):
thought it was good. But then you get older, you
experience high school, and you relate to the kids, and
then you get even older and you relate to the
principal and the janitor more than the kids, because now
you're older than them, So sometimes it's even better. Sometimes
it's worse. A movie like Three Ninjas like I brought up.
We used to love that as kids, hated it as
adult it's not a good movie. So we just have

(11:18):
a good time. We talk a lot of laughs, a
lot of funny like fan theories that you've probably seen online.
They've been going pretty viral lately, and we talk about
most punishable face in the movie and fun stuff like that.
It's definitely a blast putting that thing together.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
Yeah, it's always cool when you can kind of nail
down kind of just like, oh yeah, I love it
when people talk about this. I want to be a
part of that conversation. That's something that you guys definitely
do and you can find Confused Breakfast basically wherever you
get your podcasts, and you guys film that too.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
You have a good social.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
Media, right, Yeah, we're like, I think we just crossed
over like eight hundred thousand followers on all of our
platforms and everything. So it's just been it's been one
of those wild rides where you're like, as long as
people keep listening, we're gonna keep going with it and
see where it goes.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
You know what A man of Taste and Culture. Mike
Scholti's a drummer for a band called The Pork Tornadoes.
You can find them on Friday at Slow Down and
check them out on social media as well, and then
listen to the Confused Breakfast podcast, which is always a
blast to listen to what you guys are up to. Mike,
always appreciate chatting with you, my man. We're gonna hopefully

(12:22):
send some people out your way to check you out,
no matter where they are out there in the state
of Iowa, Nebraska, and we always appreciate the time you
give us.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
Man, have fun this week.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
You are too kind and enjoy yourself in Amsterdam, and Buddy, I'll.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Do the best that I can. Appreciate that I'd be
I mean, I would easily. I've seen the Portonios like
probably twenty times now and they're always a blast. They
always keep it fresh, and I'd be there on Friday
if you know, if I wasn't, you know, out of
the country. But man, I cannot wait to see them,
and you know you can see their entire schedule on

(12:53):
their website as well. So big thanks to him for
being a part of the show.