R.I.P. Frankie 45

It always breaks me up to see this sort of thing.  I know what it's like to lose a close friend and band member to suicide.  You always feel as though something is missing, and you always know exactly what it is. 

I only ever met the boys from Spector 45 once.  It was last year.  We were doing a show at Red 7.  They showed up, but were somehow left off of the bill for the night.  There had been a mix up with emails and confirming the show or something.  I just know that they were on the bill when we signed up, but then later they were off of the web listing.  I told them that we would cut our set short if we had to, and they said that they were going to head over to Headhunters to try to get in on a show there.  I guess there was no opening, because they walked back to Red 7.  They never said a mean thing about what was going on.  They had driven in from Dallas and I know some people who would have thrown a major fit in that situation.  However, they worked it out and went on at the end of the night.  If you pay close enough attention, you can tell certain things about a band when you see them live.  You can tell when a band has been together for a long time and when they are new.  You can tell if they're good friends or not.  You can tell if they are serious about what they are doing.  Spector 45 was one of those bands that the building could have collapsed around and they would have never missed a beat.  That's how tight they were.

My condolences to his family.  I only saw them once, but you never forget seeing a guy playing a Gretsch guitar and standing on top of his guitar amp.