Two Face'd! Parlour Bells will not perform at tomorrow's Faces demolition party

The campaign was spirited, the campaign was lively, the campaign was pure -- but we are saddened to report that PARLOUR BELLS will not be performing at tomorrow's Faces nightclub demolition party. According to the Boston Globe, the proud-but-weathered Faces sign, long a Route 2 symbol of the glory days of disco past, will come down tomorrow in an invite-only ceremony. And a full demolition will follow. Cambridge may never be the same.  

Criterion Development Partners, which will replace the faded discoteque with an apartment complex, had been in talks with the noir-pop band to perform live at Faces' last hurrah. After months of correspondence and 114 fans supporting the cause on Facebook, Glenn DiBenedetto was told this week there will be no electricity to support a live performance at the site. An acoustic alternative was briefly discussed, but the band decided that wasn't the right way for the nightclub to go out.

DiBenedetto issued a statement to the Phoenix this morning:

Friends and supporters of Parlour Bells’ campaign to play the Faces demolition party, we have some bittersweet news to share. First, thanks to your encouragement and support we were able to get the attention of the event organizers. We had several conversations with them and were ultimately offered an opportunity to play at the site, which is wonderful.

However, due to a number of logistical hurdles, and the key obstacle of there being no electrical power available to us, we decided that we would not be able to provide the kind of show we would like to give you. We considered a number of workarounds to this, but ultimately we determined that the scale of the event (invitation-only) was not nearly as grand and historic as we hoped and imagined.

Parlour Bells cannot express how cool this little campaign has been, and we have been humbled by your support. All it takes is a crazy idea. When enough people begin to believe in that idea, it starts to seem a lot less crazy. Mark this day on your calendars, my friends. Disco really is dead.

Perhaps the lesson from all this is that it is time to create something worthy of another generation's nostalgia. To quote Perry Farrell, "They may say those were the days. But in a way, you know, for us these are the days."