From the lyrics I've quoted so far, you may have gotten the sense that Dave's world is not a super happy place. It's true that on paper, Fancy Trash lyrics can look a bit stark. But live, the warmth of the music provides a contrast. (Josh's "acoustic bass" has a lot to do with that - we'll get to it down the line). One striking example is "Not Important," a song from the first CD that sounds even better live. "Not Important" has such an upbeat energy that you might not notice Dave is singing lines like: "Well, I know it ain't important/but the birds do sing aloud/nothing else seems worth it/that's why they're flying south/and I know there's a mark upon my name/and I wish I could mark it out."

Sometimes Dave's lyrics are tough thoughts riding hopeful music, other times his words are more like logs on the fire, heating up the existential struggles that power the band's most intense work. "Half of Nothing" is one of those, and when Dave looks under the hood, look out. My best live translation goes: "Half of nothing/ain't it something/isn't it there when you're empty/half of someone/soon we become/someone is there, but we're empty/love don't hurt when you quit/love don't hurt just for kicks."

But these lines aren't written or delivered by someone who has quit. The live effect of these songs is not depression but catharsis, and Dave proves my point by yelling his head off as needed. Dave does not come off as morose - just someone who's looking for a better way, and, yeah, maybe a wee bit pissed about a few of the lessons he's been served up so far. Indeed, some of Dave's best lines are better for screaming, such as smack in the middle of "Compromise," when Dave hollers "I don't care about happy endings" and the song really starts to roll. And when the band's rolling, they're a lot of fun to watch. Josh knows how to up the ante by pushing his bass around, really stepping into the song.

"Compromise" is a funny song because it highlights some of the push-and-pull between the band's integrity to itself and its role as entertainers. "Compromise" is one of those songs that wins a crowd over. I first heard it at the Iron Horse, then they didn't play it for a couple gigs. When I asked Dave about it, he told me the song was a pain because he had to retune his guitar to play it. Ever since then, I'm always on the lookout for Dave retuning. Sure enough, whenever the band plays it, I always hear from someone afterwards who asks me "what was the name of that one?"

Of course, I report back to the band: "Hey guys, did you see that first couple hit the dance floor? Guess what song you were playing?" I'm sure they're getting sick of me lobbying for "Compromise," so I'm gonna let the issue lie. They've been playing it more regularly lately anyhow. For our purposes here, the interesting question is not so much about the song, it's about how far you're willing to go to make your fans happy. For any performer with integrity, this is a delicate issue. Ideally, you play whatever the hell you want and the audience comes to you. But that's rarely the reality.

Like any other product, music is a negotiation between a band and its target audience. Bands have to figure out when to cater to fans and when to do their own thing. This brings to mind a revealing Valley Advocate article on Springfield cover bands. One of the featured bands did Guns ’N Roses covers, and they were able to make a decent living through the gigs - no small feat. But they also had to reckon with the memory of a little band that used to open for them, playing only their own original material. That band was called Staind. You take your shots when you do your own stuff: you retain the chance of hitting a "long ball," but you lose out on the "instant audience" you can gain by going the cover band route.

You know which route Fancy Trash took. Even in the early days, when they covered songs like "I'm on Fire" to fill out their set, their interpretation was so radical it might as well have been a new song. I've been on a secret campaign to get Fancy Trash to cover a Violent Femmes song. I have a particular song in mind, and if they played it, it would instantly "warm" the audience. Of course, now that I've put this in writing, it has no hope of ever happening, but my chances weren't much good to begin with.

The Violent Femmes thing is an interesting side topic, because the Femmes are probably the most relevant "sounds like" comparison you could use to describe the Fancy Trash sound. There are differences: the Femmes were punkier and more intentionally clever. Though the Violent Femmes were not phonies - nobody sang about the problem of getting laid better than they did - they always struck me as calculating. Despite their mockery of other people's pretensions, the Violent Femmes were kinda pretentious. And their songs were mostly punk rock short, whereas for Fancy Trash, their punk influence is less about getting songs under the three minute barrier, and more about attitude.

No, I don't want Fancy Trash to be the Violent Femmes, though I wouldn't mind if they covered them from time to time. But the "cover song" issue is not that important. It does, however, tie into the question of how to structure a live set and engage the audience. When I first started going to Fancy Trash gigs, it sometimes took them half a set to really get rolling. These days, they've got enough great material to open each show strong and still close out on a high note.

I usually grab a set list after each show (you can see most of them on FancyTrash.com) and scribble my notes on them. Looking over old set lists, there are times where I wrote the word "sag" over one point in the set, indicating a point where the audience seemed to drift as several slower and less potent songs got bunched up. But these kinds of scribbles are becoming more rare. Lately, my set notes are full of exclamation points, as in "this song kicked ass!!!" From my talks with Josh and Dave, I know this is no accident: they definitely think through their setlist, and they do want to entertain - just not at the expense of playing what they want. I suppose there will always be some tension between a band with backbone and demanding fans like me, and that's as it should be.

Of course, finding and keeping fans goes beyond playing a great show. I've been impressed by the band's marketing savvy. They have one of the better band web sites I've seen. In addition to viewing set lists for almost every show, you can see all the reviews of the band to date, and you can even take a peek at the recording of the demos for the next CD. There are also a bunch of live photos. I always look forward to Fancy Trash emails announcing their latest gigs, and I've even seen the guys handing out fliers after shows and shaking hands with fans.

To launch creative projects, you have to be willing to work the room sometimes, and Fancy Trash seems to understand that. The interesting part comes up when the audience likes certain songs more than they do. For example, the guys are currently partial to "Let Me Be The Fool," a song that doesn't make much of an impression on me. But you're more likely to hear that song live than the crowd-friendly "Compromise." This kind of stubbornness underscores the creative integrity of Fancy Trash, but also poses some challenges. I should be clear, however, that these are minor quibbles. Ultimately, it's better to proceed on your own terms than to cater to uber-fans. I just want them to succeed so badly, and there's so little margin for error in the music biz.

If you're not willing to tour, there's no margin for error at all. There was a brief period in early '90s Northampton when the labels would come to you (I talked about that in the Dieselmeat piece), but that's long over. You can now draw a clean line between bands that tour and bands that don't - the ones that don't have no chance of moving beyond Northampton. Of course, some could care less. But it is a little brutal knowing that no matter how brilliant your next CD is, if you don't get in the van and build a following, your music is gonna die on the shelf. True, you might bring a lot of joy to those lucky enough to know about you, but you won't have the benefit of an established label working the radio stations and pushing your product. The trick is that before you land a label big enough to finance a tour, you have to get through some self-financed ones first. These are the gritty "bonding" tours where you pile into a van and cross your fingers that it doesn’t break down.

Any band that's any good is going to hit a road sign that says "How bad do you want it?" Fancy Trash has arrived at that point rapidly. Despite being new on the scene, they were one of the first bands to be featured by the Iron Horse Valley Sounds Showcase. They are now headlining shows at the Eleven's, and bands with more years under their belts open for them regularly. But all that means is that a moment of truth is arriving.

At this point, I don't know how bad Fancy Trash wants it. I'm not 100 percent sure they know either. The most important question facing the band is indeed the regional one: are they content to be one of the best (and most original) bands the Valley has seen in a long time, or do they have their sights on something bigger? If so, what hardships are they willing to endure? Are they willing to put it all on the line in an industry that guarantees nothing?

These are daunting questions, ones that many bands avoid. After all, if you don't risk it all, you can always be comforted by the knowledge that you "could have been huge," but decided against it because you had family commitments, or because the music industry is too corrupt, or any other convenient excuse that comes to mind. But if you do poney up and pay the price, and it still doesn't work out, you have to live with it. You have to wake up in a world where you put the best of yourself out there and didn't break through. That's a hard world to wake up in. I can't blame bands for shying away from the big push.

One of the more provocative things I've read about the band is on performermag.com, where it says that "Fancy Trash doesn't have an insatiable drive to become world-renowned." That statement seems accurate for now, but will it continue to hold true? Recently, the band invested in a big brown van which would look great with a "Seventies Show"-style Fancy Trash logo on the side. Before the van, I thought Fancy Trash might be willing to rest on the laurels of their studio work and local reputation. Obviously they are not, and that now puts them in the upper echelon of bands from the valley who may have a chance out there. That list, in no particular order, is: Fancy Trash, LoFine, Drunk Stuntmen, and maybe Ware River Club.

It's good to keep in mind that most of these guys aren't chasing stardom: the main incentive is a life in music without a day job. I think they are all conscious of a "window of opportunity" that eventually closes. After a certain age, lifestyle choices and family obligations turn even the most promising bands into hobbies. I know plenty of musicians who have already made their peace with that. I guess I'm just a little biased, because I feel like believing in a world where people have a chance to get paid to do what they love most. I certainly hope Fancy Trash gets that opportunity, but we have yet to see how far they're willing to go. That part of the Fancy Trash Story is not yet written.

But they have themselves a van, they're hitting the road, and (they shouldn't take this the wrong way) they have the "gimmick" of a stand-up bass. Obviously the stand-up is more than a novelty - the rich tones of the "acoustic bass" are a cornerstone of their sound. The point is that their look is an attention-getter. And over the last couple years, Josh has gotten a lot more comfortable with the bass. Watching him sway with its weight, always under control, it's hard to believe that Josh was ever intimidated by the instrument.

But at first he was. Josh told me that before the days of Fancy Trash, he had no idea what to do with the thing. He bought it for a bluegrass band he was in, but the band broke up before he could give it a shot. So he stared at it for six months in the corner of his living room before he felt plucky enough to pick it up. The chance paid off: having played the "electric bass" for fourteen years, Josh was looking for a bit of re-invention. When he started playing with Dave, he found someone who was open to experimenting with a different look and sound.

After their first rehearsal, Josh never brought his electric bass again. Two weeks later, at their first gig, Josh debuted the stand-up. For a while, he felt like a musical "poser," but over time, it started to feel more natural, and it meshed with Dave's acoustic much better than a conventional bass would have. The stand-up bass is now central to the balance of elements in Fancy Trash, giving them a memorable look for the road while putting a fence around the bleaker possibilities in their music.

Touring really gives a band a gut-check about the rock and roll lifestyle, and about how much they feel like dealing with each other. So the first road trip was a test for all three of them. In particular, I was curious about how Ben was fitting in. Being the new drummer, and being considerably younger than Dave and Josh, I wondered how the guys felt about Ben and his impact on the band. Josh told me that Ben trained with the same teacher as Jason, so stylistically, there wasn't a huge adjustment to make. Band lineups always have funny histories. As it turns out, Josh and Ben played together in a band with a female vocalist a year before Ben joined Fancy Trash. They almost tried Dave out for that band, except Dave blew off the tryout. Later, when Jason left Fancy Trash, Ben was back in the mix.

Ben's impact on the band seems to come less from his drumming style and more from his '90s indie rock influences - Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, etc. The way Josh tells it, Ben brought out the rockier influences that Dave and Josh had kept a bit under wraps. This definitely rings true with the shows I've seen lately. It's a welcome change, with the edgier side of Fancy Trash bringing some sparks to the folkier side. If that's Ben's doing, you can add me to his fan club. Ben is the member of the band I know the least. Off stage, he seems like a real nice kid; onstage, he doesn’t seem like a kid at all. He senses the nuances in the material and adjusts the tempo accordingly. The musical chemistry between him, Josh, and Dave is obvious. Now that Ben has solidified the band's lineup, they are ready to strap Josh's bass down and travel to new clubs.

The word is that the first "van tour" of the eastern seaboard went great, and there's more touring in the works. The new band manager, Don Rooke (who is also the booking agent for the Eleven's), is on board to help make it happen. Meanwhile, the band is in Josh's basement studio each week laying down the demos for their next CD. With at least twenty songs under consideration, tough choices lie ahead. I’ve already made my biases abundantly clear, but I know they're going to come out with a great CD one way or the other. I wish they weren't gonna call it Let Me Be The Fool (the working title) - a bit too self-effacing for my taste. I'd prefer a title like Three Cheers for the Cheated- something that sounds more like the future classic I expect it to be.

Perhaps the most important thing about the second CD is that they're really doing it as a band. The first record might have been more Dave' direction and Dave's material, but this one's about the three of them. Dave brings in the lyrics, but they write and arrange the music together, pulling each other's bits into the songs. They have their work cut out for them - the biggest problem is going to be choosing between twenty good songs. Josh hopes that some of the songs will "eliminate themselves" as they are recorded.

Some songs just might not sound right in the studio. "A Fish Called Hope," for one, is going to be almost impossible to catch (bad pun, sorry). Last time I talked with Josh about it, he told me the band was not trying to duplicate the live version, opting instead to experiment with different approaches and arrangements. In contrast, "Tulips," one of the best new songs, is going to be easier to nail down in the studio. Good news for now: all of the best songs not on the first CD are at least under consideration for the second.

One way or the other, the band is gonna have to pick ten good songs out of twenty (or more). You know what I hope: I hope they bring out the boldest side of their material. And despite the limitations of the studio, I hope they find a way to get more of the "thrashy Trash" on record. There's no official release date set for the CD; the chosen approach is that "it takes the time it takes." Meantime, the guys have plenty on their plates, touring and honing their material.

No crystal ball here: I can't say what's next for the band or how far they're going to go. Just how high the stakes are really comes down to them. When I began this piece, I wanted to get across that this is a band of real stature with a real opportunity. I don't know if I've succeeded, and I don't know if they will. But I do know that each time I go to a Fancy Trash show, I leave feeling better, and so do a lot of other people. That is a kind of success I respect deeply, and maybe I envy it a little bit too.

Perhaps the issue with success is not chasing it but redefining it. I've now met a number of my musical idols; those encounters have been both exhilarating and disappointing. Being a musician/rock star and being a decent person are two separate matters. The guys in Fancy Trash are people I respect off the stage as well as on it. No matter what they do in the music world and how far they take it, they have nothing to prove to me. OK, so maybe Fancy Trash can't save rock and roll. But if rock and roll ever does get saved, it's not gonna happen from the top down. It will happen one town at a time, and bands like Fancy Trash will be in the thick of it.

Fancy Trash dressed as Buffalo Springfield at "Transperformance."
From left to right: Josh Thayer, Ben Laine, and Dave Houghton.