A hurricane of elbows spun through the Aladdin Theater on Friday night during the first of two nights belonging to , perhaps Portland's biggest independent band. The rock trio were celebrating the release of their seventh studio album, "Stone by Stone." Most in the packed venue were simply celebrating "The People's Band," the same locals who have been selling out mid-sized venues for 10 years without the benefit of mainstream hype.
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"They don't play for the man, and they never have. They play for the fans," Jason Monroy said.
Monroy estimated that he'd seen Floater live 10-to-15 times. "They are the best rock-and-roll band out there. They are not fake.
I have converted my brother's friends and now they come too. They have been so underrated for so long, it's (ridiculous)."
Backstage before the show, bassist/vocalist Rob Wynia sucked down cough syrup to alleviate a sore throat while drummer Peter Cornett shuffled through a series of patterned stage shirts before settling on one that would be obscured by his drum kit anyway.
The group was giddy, but confident. Conversations roamed from B-grade movies to the sting of "uneducated" reviews in local weeklies. From the floor, fans began chanting "Floater" early in the opening act's set.
There is the feeling that this album will be a telling barometer of the band's career. "I'm hoping that this is the one that breaks us (into the mainstream)," Cornett said. "I'm still a dreamer.
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"When we were kind of an underground band, we had dreams of making it big," guitarist Dave Amador said. "Now, after so many years, we don't hold our breath."
"Stone by Stone" may displease some fans who endured 2002's Pink Floyd-inspired "Alter" and 2004's "Acoustics" hoping for a return to Floater's earlier mosh-pit dynamics.
Venomous fan backlash has been a recurring theme on each of Floater's past four albums.
"Anyone who is capable of appreciating a band for what they did and then turning around and then turning against them, never really appreciated them in the first place," Wynia said. "We've lost a lot of the mostly meathead crowd, creating room for other people.
I like it when people are dancing and taking their clothes off, but not when it turns into purposely violent behavior. Nobody wants that."
"As our lives progress, different things come out of us," Amador said.
"A guy who was drunk in his 20s and picking fights and smoking grass everyday is different when he gets into his thirties and has kids and a job."
Regardless, the melodic "Stone by Stone" contains Floater's finest songwriting, tightest harmonies, best production and greatest potential to introduce the band to a mass audience. The opening track "An Apology" acts like a Floater guidebook, seamlessly shifting between the band's various soundscapes.
"I think they have a good shot," KUFO DJ Fatboy Roberts said. Roberts has been a Floater fan since 1997. "We always get requests to play Floater, but we played "An Apology" and the reaction was clear.
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Floater opened with "An Apology" on Friday and the crowd quickly melted into a steamy cling of hair and skin. In the crush at the front middle-school girls danced amon distinguished couples on their date night and shirtless 20-somethings. Floater played "Stone by Stone" track-by-track during its first set, then returned to play older material during a second.
"Stone by Stone" still owes a nod to Pink Floyd, particularly the brilliant closing track "Home in the Sky," but allows Amador's U2 influences to shine through. During the beginning of "Breakdown," Wynia sounds like Bono, and nearly every song has at least one change or moment reminiscent of the Irish quartet. However, Cornett's original percussion style makes each song unmistakably Floater.
Thematically, Wynia has always relied on archetypes and symbolism to tell his stories. On "Stone by Stone," he continued to build on existential themes of creation through destruction
Among many examples: "Precious things and worthless trifles/guarded by young men with rifles/ Watch the tide come/take them all away" from "The Wave"; "As the snake devours the egg it feels that all is gained/All the sacred and profane will be one again," from "In Transition"; and "Cut the rope and enjoy the free fall" from "Proviso."
However, his storytelling progressed to deeper levels and, musically, the album evokes more complex emotions than ever before, particularly on the beautiful "Weightless," a track reminiscent of vintage Police.
The subtleties of storytelling may have been lost under the rush of live energy Friday. By the end of the two-hour show, Wynia's steady tenor eroded toward a dusty croak, forcing the band to alter its set list. From the second row of the crush, Wynia's fading voice was drowned out under the volume of the Floater faithful, singing along with every word.
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