JOHNSON: Eddie B. - king of the underground
By Bill Johnson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published June 20, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
It was late Tuesday night and they were all standing on the sidewalk, the overflow spilling onto 15th Street downtown, their still-saddened faces lit by the soft glow of dozens of flickering candles.
Now and then, someone would walk up to place a small bouquet of flowers - roses, carnations, a lily or two - in the spaces between the candles, before bowing their heads and muttering a few words.
Clearly, someone had died. Such memorial displays have become commonplace these days, mostly at the scene of car wrecks, fatal shootings and the like. Few, though, are ever assembled at such a late hour.
What I learned, having pulled over to inquire into it, was there could not have been a better hour scheduled.
This was, I found out, Eddie Bennett's hour, the near-midnight hour of the day when he and those he surrounded himself with came alive, the hour when for years he went to work pulling varied groups of young people together for a long night's revelry.
Very few of those standing in the street that night to mourn Eddie Bennett were over 30. Make it 25. Some, I'd hazard, were this close to violating curfew.
Yet there they stood, candle wax oozing and bubbling on the pavement, more than a few staring up at the tall building that loomed before them, undoubtedly envisioning the long drop Eddie Bennett took that night.
Denver police say they still have not figured out whether the 25-year-old man's fall from the top floors of the 42- story Brooks Tower at 15th and Champa last weekend was intentional or accidental, only that he was the second person to die from a fall from the landmark high-rise in three years.
Either way, to those who came to mourn him it does not matter. Eddie mattered, they said. And his life should not be remarked upon publicly or remembered solely by the manner in which he died.
"Eddie B." is how they all called him. Oddly, few knew much of his personal and family life, even Jeremy Hoff, 25, of Denver, who was a partner with Eddie Bennett for three years in Skywire Production Co., a lighting and concert promotion firm.
All that he knew of his personal life was that he was adopted when he was young. He never much brought up his family, he said.
No, Eddie Bennett's life, it was explained, was devoted to Denver's night scene. It was something that I, admittedly - or, for that matter, anyone else who can remember Ronald Reagan first taking office - could possibly know little about.
"I met him in the scene," Jeremy Hoff explained. "We got close. We had a tight crew of friends who hung out and ran together."
The scene? Your crew?
"You know," he tried to explain, "the ravers, club kids - all the people who like electronic music and the clubs."
He might have well been speaking Russian. He clearly understood this.
"I'm talking about the electronic party scene," Jeremy Hoff said slowly. "Eddie was the king of it, who made people, whether they were 15 or 50 years old, a part of that world, a man who was accepting of all races, all types of people."
If you went to a club, an underground party, a rave, well, you would immediately know Eddie Bennett, he said.
"He would walk into a room full of people and put a smile on everyone's face," Eric Soderlund, 20, explained. "He was an artist, a very unique person, a guy who touched a lot of lives."
This was apparent in the sea of faces that swarmed 15th Street Tuesday night: white kids, black, Hispanic and Asian. To them, those who frequented this unfamiliar-to-a-middle-aged-man world with its night-owl hours and language, he was a welcoming, pied-piper king.
"Look, you are never going to understand," Leah Hlewko finally said. Eighteen years old, she had worked as a go-go dancer at a variety of events Eddie Bennett staged.
"He was the glue that kept the whole crew together," she explained. "He united so many people who you would think would never party or even be seen together. Because of him, I have met a million people I would never have met, ever."
He was visiting a friend that night, Jeremy Hoff said softly.
"Did he kill himself? That's the rumor going around. And yeah, he had his problems, here and there," he said.
What he and everyone else has heard, he said, is that Eddie knocked on the door of his friend's home on the 39th floor, that when he was let in, he eased through and dived off the balcony.
"To the people close to him, who knew him, that story is skeptical," Jeremy Hoff said. "We're just not sure. It would make me feel better knowing, but that story sounds just too simple."
As the last of the candles began to flicker out, the few remaining mourners began making plans to host a free underground party in Eddie B.'s memory.
Though I understood half of what they were trying to explain to me, I left feeling glad that I had stopped.
I'm happy to be able share a few words about the king of underground Denver.
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June 20, 2008
2:36 p.m.
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nicktaste writes:
rip
June 20, 2008
4:32 p.m.
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djrabbie writes:
Very well written article. RIP Eddie, you will be missed!
June 20, 2008
9:02 p.m.
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stolen_ipod writes:
Eddie, you'll always be an hero...
June 20, 2008
9:38 p.m.
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marcusstengel writes:
Thank you, I am very happy to see such a tribute to someone i'm proud to call my best friend. He was the greatest, the king of the underground
June 20, 2008
11:53 p.m.
kingQueen writes:
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
June 21, 2008
12:06 a.m.
kingQueen writes:
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
June 21, 2008
12:25 a.m.
stolen_ipod writes:
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
June 21, 2008
1:06 a.m.
Phunk_E_Styles writes:
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
June 21, 2008
1:58 a.m.
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kevin3 writes:
Eddie sounds like a great guy, bringing people of varied ages and races together for a good time! I do believe for whatever reason he killed himself. I would say 99% of people who are on a balcony 39 stories high are overly careful not to do anything foolish that would cause themselves death. Sometimes a crazy voice in the head tells you to do something. I remember being on the Golden Gate Bridge and a voice in my head told me to jump. Obviously I did not listen to it. I am not a depressed person. Sometimes when a person is high up (on a bridge, building, cliff..etc) one cannot help what it would be like to fall. Then that voice kicks in.....
June 21, 2008
12:43 p.m.
stolen_ipod writes:
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
June 21, 2008
10:32 p.m.
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mamaw writes:
stolen_ipod and kingQueen, your "tributes" are rude, unconscionable, twisted & demented . . probably indicative of who you both are. Let him rest, and let his friends and family grieve without having to deal with the likes of you.
June 22, 2008
8:40 a.m.
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pixyinpink writes:
stolen ipod and kingqueen you two are disgusting
Eddie was a wonderful person loved by so many people
you two are cowards and not worthy of knowing him
June 26, 2008
1:48 a.m.
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carli30 writes:
What a well written article. I was lucky to be graced by Eddie's presence a few times either out at events or at Kazmos which is the first place I ever met him. Eddie was always there with a smile and a hug. You will be missed. RIP Eddie.