In Memoriam: Denver Musician Bruce Wayne Carl

Bruce Wayne Carl — yes, that was his real name — passed away on December 18, at the age of 53. At the start of 2023, Westword shared some of his story in a piece on the building where he lived in RiNo, a last residential holdout in an area that was rapidly developing.

A memorial is planned for 1 p.m. Saturday, January 20, at the Pour House; it's intended as a celebration of Carl's life. "We will focus on how wonderful it is to have had him in our lives," says his sister, Ruth Flores. Some volumes from his impressive collection of philosophy books will be there for people who want to remember him that way, she adds.

Flores lives in Portland, Oregon, and has flown back and forth over the past month as she tries to set her brother's affairs in order, as well as figure out exactly what happened. "The cause of death is a mystery," she says, adding that an autopsy and toxicity screen were both ordered. "The medical examiner's office is saying it will be six months before they know. It was a sudden seizure that stopped his breathing. He was just sitting in his house and stopped mid-sentence. But why, we don't know."

Carl was a musician, first and foremost, though he made his living working in the service industry while pursuing his musical dreams. His most recent project involved a band called the Dark Pops, which he termed "performance art, living in the realm of emo, dark pop and indie rock."

His work got noticed, and his music gained positive reviews. Independent Music & Arts Inc. called Carl someone "audiences should be listening to," and said that "nothing reeks of inauthenticity here even for a second." WithGuitars magazine compared him to artists like Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison, saying each possessed the ability to express "the turmoil and torment in his soul."

His sister found him to be much more than a suffering musician. "He was such a powerful crusader, full of passion and belief that we must shine a light on the evil in this world," Flores says. "I am so proud of him and full of admiration! How he never stopped, never lost hope, never stopped trying and wanting to try. He was quintessentially calm, and worked to create peacefulness for himself and those near him."

His partner, Constance Moore, was with Carl in his final moments. "I don't know about heaven," she says, "but you know the stuff you need to go to heaven? That's the stuff that Bruce was made of."

His neighbors in the rowhouses on Marion Street agree. Katie Chapin, Carl's next-door neighbor, recalls how whenever she was struggling with anxiety and having a panic attack, he would drop everything he was doing to be there for her, to stay with her until the attack subsided. "That was Bruce, " Chapin said. "And the thing is, he never expected anything in return."

Carl prided himself on being a deep and careful thinker. He always hungered for more information, Flores says: world religions, Norse mythology, Tolkien, even teaching himself how to read Egyptian hieroglyphs. He had the habit of covering his kitchen cabinets and assorted surfaces with inspirational phrases, quotes from poetry and philosophy that inspired his art and his life.
After his passing, Flores found a sticky note on Carl's computer: "Keep going, never give up, never stop fighting." That mantra is reminiscent of something he told us a year ago when we wrote about his home. "That’s what we do," he said. "Live moment to moment. Deal with the future as it comes at us. It’ll be sad to leave this place. But what's even more sad is that there’s probably very few places like it left to go.”

That note on Carl's computer also makes sense when matched up with his last song, which he debuted only days before his unexpected death. "Ulysses" is a haunting piece that plays with the Homeric hero from myth as well as Tennyson's famous poem, which ends with the line "...to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

Bruce Wayne Carl never did yield.

A celebration of Bruce Wayne Carl's life is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, January 20, in the upper room at the Pour House, 1410 Market Street. You can leave messages on the online Tribute Wall.