Floater fans get unplugged at WOW Hall show
■The band’s laid-back
performace Sunday night
did not surprise its fans
By Mason West
Oregon Daily Emerald
Floater has won over many
fans with its thrashing live
shows that shake floors with mu
sic. But Floater fans were not op
posed to a change Sunday, when
the band showed its lighter side
in an all-acoustic set at the WOW
Hall.
“This is sort of like, ‘Welcome to
our living room,’” said bassist/lead
singer Rob Wynia. “It’s not some
thing that we do very often — or
very well.”
The band’s manager, Cassandra
Thorpe, said this was its sixth all
acoustic show. Though the scene
is relatively new for the band,
Wynia was more modest than ac
curate — for they do it very well.
“They sound like they know
what their doing,” audience mem
ber Kasey Wickman said.
This was Wickman’s first Floater
show, and she said she would have
thought they were an acoustic
group if she hadn’t previously
heard their CDs.
The audience clapped in sup
port after every song and hollered
in recognition when the band be
gan to play acoustic versions of
its heavier songs. But the acoustic
set also allowed the band to play
material that it doesn’t usually
expose to the public.
After playing a new song,
Wynia said, “I love it when peo
ple clap for songs they don’t
know.”
In addition to their own reper
toire, the band covered songs by
Pete Townshend, Neil Young, U2
and Bauhaus.
“If you don’t listen to any
Bauhaus, you should go buy some,”
Wynia said to the audience.
Floater fan Will Biddle said that
even when the band played cov
ers, they still added the “Floater
touch.”
“They’ve got a great way of
combining rock with musicality
and feeling,” he said. “Every
song has feeling to them and feel
ing to everybody that hears
them.”
Floater broke even more tradi
tions by trading places in the
band. The show began with all
three members playing a guitar.
In reverse, all three members
huddled around the drum set at
the end of the first set in percus
sive harmony.
Wynia even forfeited the stage
for a song and let drummer Pete
Cornett step up to the micro
phone. Cornett forgot the lyrics
about halfway through, but con
tinued singing and ad-libbed new
lyrics, mocking his error. The au
dience loved it.
Even the WOW Hall deviated
from the norm for the special occa
sion. Seats were laid out where the
mosh pit would have normally
been. The stage was decorated
with candles and vegetation (there
was a planted tree on the stage). In
cense filled the air, and recorded
classical music prefaced the show
instead of more rock.
Thorpe said she was going for
an MTV Unplugged-feel with the
venue.
“We just wanted it to be the op
posite of a normal Floater show,”
she said.
Edith Sumaquial said the hall
felt like a “java-esque venue
Courtesy photo
where you just hang out and lis
ten to music.”
Instead of coffee, the band sipped
wine between songs.
But Floater is plugging in again
and returning to WOW Hall on
Oct. 12 for the show that Thorpe
said “gets people hooked.”
Mason West is the senior Pulse reporter
for the Oregon Daily Emerald. He can be
reached at masonwest@dailyemerald.com,
012540
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