JENNIFER JOHNSON: FLOATER ALWAYS DELIVERS LIVE >>>

It’s often forgotten that rock music is still quite new, not really hitting big until the 1960s. What we have now is a fierce free-for-all of unchained self-expression. There are still countries in the world where the act of writing anti-government lyrics and songs â€" forget performing them live â€" gets you arrested, beaten and possibly imprisoned for treason. Floater uses music as an avenue to address the American lifestyle, social consciousness, consumer-driven obsession and imagined need, along with loss and darkly, love.

Forming in 1993, Floater came out of the gate hard releasing the first of many albums in early ’94, impressively earning two preliminary Grammy nominations â€" one for their first release, Sink, in the category of “Best Rock Album” and another nod for the band’s second release, Glyph, in the category of “Best Alternative Performance.” Compared to these and other earlier releases dubbed “trippy,” “out there” and “acid rock” by many, the band’s latest offering, Stone by Stone, is more general, public friendly and highly accessible â€" especially with David Amador’s guitar mastery being showcased along with awesome tribal drumming by Peter Cornett. More than rabid Floater fans will dig almost every track. The dynamics of the CD’s entirety highlights the Portland, Ore., trio’s broad, now matured, musical abilities. World beat, reggae, tribal. You’ll hear it. Atmospheric, psychedelic, folksy pop? Yes, that, too. Heavy metal bass-laden, head banging rock? Absolutely. Floater is consistently great live, approachable as a band, and consistently evolving, writing, turning out new releases and touring in what singer/bass guitarist Robert Wynia has described as their “submarine” tour van. Tonight Floater will plug in at Hell’s Kitchen, for a show with In Lunar Blue and Bucket.

As a singer, Wynia seems to recognize his voice is really his greatest instrument; stretching tones and punctuating skillfully written lyrics with delicate breath or long powerfully held notes with consistent equal ease. This overall consistency has developed a near cult-like following similar to Phish, Primus and Pink Floyd, albeit on a smaller scale. Fans are swept into the music, their bodies moving with fluid melody. From above on stage, a Floater crowd must resemble the ocean â€" languid ripples of people entranced and slipping against each other softly during calmer dreamlike musical moments only to be shaken apart and dashed into a frenzy of curling roaring waves of fists in the air when the rockin’ out starts. 

Are you ready to jump in?

[Hell’s Kitchen, with In Lunar Blue and Bucket, Saturday, Dec. 6, 9 p.m. $10, 3829 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]