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Benjamin’s brings nightlife to Bangor

By Jessica DiSanto

Posted on Monday, February 19th, 2001, 12:00 am

Mark W. Lipczynski.

DJ 'Dirty Mike', Mike Constantine, spun music for Benjamin's After Dark's beach party Saturday night from 9:30 pm to 2 am.

Mark W. Lipczynski

Bar tender, Alison Crawford decorates a bust of Benjamin Franklin with leis for the beach party at Benjamin's After Dark Saturday night.

BANGOR – If action and adventure are what you’re looking for than look no further.

It all began when Benjamin’s After Dark, a popular lounge in the 1970s in downtown Bangor closed in 1986, only to be reopened and transformed when Tim Schuck, the current owner, bought the lounge in 1998.

Schuck started off by having live entertainment perform seven nights a week. But he noticed the same bands which played at Benjamin’s were also performing at other nightclubs in the area. Schuck also noticed the clientele had changed. A younger crowd was frequenting the bar.

In January 1999, Benjamin’s was shut down for two weeks. During this time Schuck transformed the lounge into the type of dance club people were asking for.

“I wanted to make it into the popular club that it was 20 years ago,” Schuck said.

And that’s what he did.

Schuck hired DJ’s Mike Constantine and Derek LeLand.

Like most other nightclubs in the area he brought diversity into the entertainment by setting up themes for certain days of the week.

Tuesday became pub night. The dance floor is closed but many of the people who were customers of Benjamin’s 20 years ago revisit on this night.

Wednesday became `80s night bringing in fans of retro dance music.

The radio station WTOS’s D.J. comes in on Thursday nights, plays rock n’ roll music and gives out an assortment of prizes.

On Friday and Saturday nights Benjamin’s offers an assortment of music from techno and hip hop to top 40 music.

But it isn’t so much the entertainment that attracts patrons to Benjamin’s but rather the fact that despite the club being smaller than others in the area, it gives the impression of encompassing a lot of people.

According to Schuck, because the club is small and confined, you can have only 50 people in the club but it would feel as though the club were fuller.

“People want to go where people are,” he said. “They like to go where they know other people. We’re like a neighborhood bar.”

Stepping into the front door of Benjamin’s, patrons must first walk down a flight of stone steps to get into the underground club.

The small club is full of people either lounging in the sitting area that comes equipped with tables, chairs and couches or out on the dance floor. The throbbing music fills the air but isn’t so loud as to drown out the conversational chatter of those at the front of the building.

But like most lounges, the club is restricted to those 21-years or older.

Because of the restrictions of the most recent drinking laws, Schuck noticed a change in the way people were drinking.

“[I] found that when the drinking laws changed there were less people drinking,” he said.

According to Schuck Benjamin’s does attract a lot of college students, especially from Husson College in Bangor, because of the low-cost drink specials such as $1 drafts on Thursday nights.

Other ways Benjamin’s promotes business is by having contests and promotions and having no cover charge for females making “every night, ladies’ night.”

To encourage business Saturday night, the club ran with a beach party theme and offered specials on beach related drinks like Malibu, Corona and Sex-on-the-beach.