The 1981 Listening Post - Frank Soda - Saturday Night Getaway

 Reviewed by Chris Roberts

Released: 1981 Frank Soda Saturday Night Getaway Genre: Bar Band Rock Rating: 3.3 out of 5 Highlights: Skin Graft Look at the album cover for Saturday Night Getaway and form your own judgement. Here’s mine: that’s Frank Soda in all his rock god glory. Blingy Cheap Trick rally hat, red polka dot one-piece, airborne Van Halen pose, prominent guitar, smoke machine, an “in yo face” expression. Still I don’t quite believe Frank Soda is a rock god. Perhaps it’s the short hair or dirty tennies, but something about Frank Soda reminds me of Frank Sorta, the manager at my local BofA branch. If I didn’t know better, I’d guess the LP was Frank Sorta’s souvenir-takeaway he made at rock-and-roll fantasy camp. But Frank Soda deserves respect. He’s the real thing: Canada’s answer to Dee Snider! Frank got his start in the body-building/proto-metal band Thor. With his bar band, The Imps, Frank opened for Triumph, Deep Purple and Savoy Brown. His shows with the Imps were full of visual hijinks: KISS-style pyrotechnics, one-handed guitar playing (while guzzling beer), guitar battles with himself via video screens, electric suits, and prop hats. In fact, one of Frank’s “Moon Man” hats exploded while he was wearing it, burning off his hair and skin! That is FULL ROCK STAR CRED, Frank! 70’s bar bands had it tough trying to get signed in the early 80’s—hyped live shows rarely translate into exciting studio recordings. For Dee Snider’s Twisted Sister it worked because their NWOBHM sound had just a little edge and their debut LP’s raw production sounded freshly authentic. It was enough hype to bridge the gap to the video era where Twisted Sister took off. I think Frank Soda should’ve exploded in the pre-Nirvana years. Frank Soda and The Imps 1980 LP Soda Pop has some of the Red Hot Chili Peppers punk energy but it’s real “strength” is the juvenile boys’ comedy popularized by Green Jelly and Ugly Kid Joe at the end of the decade. But Saturday Night Getaway is inexplicably less offensive than Soda Pop. Between Frank’s Sammy Hagar vocals and the song selection I mostly hear generic rock for more mature audiences. Case in point are two unremarkable covers: “Born To Be Wild” and the Young Rascals’ “Come On Up.” The opening title track gets the party started in the “hey guys, put down your Molsen Golden and stop the hockey talk and pay attention to us guys on stage” kind of way. Not a call to the mosh pit. The closer, “Shoot To Kill,” is diet Bon Jovi. There are moments. The naughty “Drunk and Disorderly” isn’t up to Motley Crue standards but would be fine in the Kix ouvre. “Break The Ice” has cool effects and a little snarly echo in Frank’s voice—although I have a hard time imagining a man in a light-up electric suit is much of a wallflower. Mystical flutes on “Moon Man” offset the dumb lyrics. But do you think Frank missed his opportunity to cash in on exploding moonman hats and burning hair? Hell no! As they say “write what you know.” The accident inspired the third track, and my highlight, the funky funky “Skin Graft.” The funk injection provides needed contrast and boogie, allowing me to dream about a a dozen drunk Canadians singing “skin graft! skin graft!” That would be a hoot.