The Charleston music and comedy communities are mourning the Feb. 23 death of Scott Frank, the gravel-voiced singer/guitarist for alt-rock group Fiasco. He was 30 years old.
A funeral service for Frank will be held Sunday and a fundraiser has been created on Facebook by Christian Daniels to raise $15,000 for his funeral proceedings.
A tribute show for Frank will take place at the Royal American on March 5 featuring his Fiasco bandmates and the Royal Tinfoil. Donations from the door will go toward Frank’s funeral.
Local music fans remember Frank for his honest and raw writing on songs like “Jeff Goldblum Goes for the Gold,” “Galavant,” and “Loose Lipped.” After taking a hiatus for two years in the middle of the decade, Fiasco reunited around Frank in 2018, becoming a major milestone after years of personal hardship. One of his talents as a songwriter was to bring the challenges he faced to the music in an urgent way. According to the band, Fiasco had just finished recording a new EP a week before Frank’s death. They plan to share it around the time of the tribute show.
DJ Edwards, frontman for Never Better, found inspiration in Scott’s music and persona. “When I heard Scott’s band Fiasco, it was the first time I felt like there might be a community for my type of music in Charleston,” he wrote in a tribute on Instagram. “Scott’s vocal delivery and attitude enraptures my core creative energy, and I told him that several times.”
Fiasco bandmate and friend Andrew Barnes remembers the love that Frank showed the people around him. “Like clockwork, he always told his friends he loved them at the end of every conversation with a ‘Love you, pal’ or ‘Love you, buddy.’ Of all the incredible things Scott contributed to the world in his tragically short time here, I think that’s the most important.”
Lily Slay from the Royal Tinfoil recalls Scott being a friend in every aspect of her life. “For years, whenever you sang, your glasses never stood a chance,” she writes. “MacGyver-ed together with electrical tape and hope, whether precariously dangling off the tip of your nose or flat-out flying across the room, they were no match for your intensity. It was an intensity you brought to every facet of your life, a howl from your hidden places that drove you relentlessly to love and to be loved.”
Frank was also known in Charleston’s comedy scene for his commitment and passion. Henry Riggs of comedy duo Nameless Numberhead remembers Frank for giving 110 percent to his craft. “I loved the way his brain worked. He was fearless; a performer who put everything on the stage,” Riggs says. “His passion for music and comedy was infectious. We are all better for having experienced what Scott Frank gave to Charleston.”
Comedian Hagan Ragland says that without Frank, a piece of Charleston’s heart is missing. “With Scott, you never just hung out. He was always doing some sort of bit or character and could make anyone laugh,” he says. “On top of being a brilliant mind for comedy and music, he was also very vulnerable, too. That’s a rare quality that most people don’t outright show. You could talk to him about anything and we did.”
Fiasco took to Facebook on Tuesday to address the news. “Scott was the constant creative force and the battery that made Fiasco run in its many different forms over the years; but more importantly he was a compassionate, thoughtful, and endlessly encouraging friend who wanted nothing more than to see the many people he loved smile.” Love Best of Charleston? Help the Charleston City Paper keep Best of Charleston going every year with a donation. Or sign up to become a member of the Charleston City Paper club.