Spector 45 frontman Frankie Campagna died early Saturday morning at the age of 24, leaving a palpable void in the local music scene and scores of mourners in Dallas and beyond.
Details are being finalized for a memorial show Thursday at Club Dada in his honor. The doors will open at 7 p.m., and bands, including local acts the Doubledowns, Missile and Here Holy Spain, will begin playing at 8 p.m.
There will be no cover, but, according to the wishes of Frankie's father, muralist and gallery owner Frank Campagna, donations of $10 to go to the Deep Ellum Community Association will graciously be accepted.
Frankie Campagna, widely known as Frankie 45, or simply Frankie, had become a staple around the Deep Ellum area of late -- and actually had more or less grown up in the area -- both for his work with the self-styled "greaser-punk" band Spector 45 and as a bartender at Club Dada and, more recently, at Amsterdam at Exposition Park.
Frankie and I only met a few times, though we shared a few mutual friends, including Spector 45's drummer, Anthony Delabano, which, passing though our acquaintance may have been, makes this something of a task to write.
All I guess I knew about Frankie, really, was that he was a highly-talented young musician with seemingly inexhaustible potential and was a nice, gregarious guy. Before pitching this piece, the first thing I did was reach out to a mutual friend to see if he had anything he'd like me to include. After a while, though, we decided that the most poignant possible thing to say, at the moment, is this: It sucks.
Further details for the memorial show for Frankie Campagna may be found on the Dallas Observer's website.
