When Oregon-based rock trio Floater released its eighth album, “Wake,” and headlined one of Portland’s biggest clubs, the Crystal Ballroom, in June, it put the city’s leading critics in a tough position.

The occasion demanded acknowledgement from the local music cognoscenti, you see, even if it’s those same folks who’ve been scratching their heads about Floater’s regional popularity for years. That’s because Floater’s sound — a collision of hard rock, melodic pop, proggy psych and histrionic vocals straight out of 1993 — is as unpopular with those who get paid to dispense opinions about music as it is popular with the band’s large and passionate fan base across the Northwest.

It’s that fan base that allows Floater to regularly tour and consistently draw big crowds in places like, well, Bend. They’re drawn to the band’s decidedly throwback style, in part, because it reminds them of the good old days, maybe a party or 10 during their years in Eugene. Conversely, it’s that throwback style that prompted the Portland Mercury’s Ezra Ace Caraeff to opine: “‘Wake’ exists in an alternate-universe version of Portland where time stood still” and that the album “truly is the sound of being stuck between competing hard rock FM dials” from a bygone era.

Willamette Week put Floater on its cover before the band’s big CD-release show at the Crystal. The first line of writer Casey Jarman’s story? “Not everything from Portland is considered cool.”

Back in April, I asked Floater frontman Rob Wynia if he feels satisfaction in finding success despite getting the cold shoulder from critics.

“If everybody hated us then we’d play in our garage for each other,” he said. “But since it seems in general to only be critics, then screw ’em.”

Floater (electric), with Tuck and Roll ; 8:30 tonight, doors open 7:30 p.m.; $15 plus fees in advance, $18 at the door.

Floater (acoustic) ; 9 p.m. Saturday, doors open 8:30 p.m.; $13 plus fees in advance, $16 at the door. Advance tickets available at the outlets listed at the website below.

Both shows at the Domino Room, 51 N.W. Greenwood Ave., Bend; www.randompresents.com.

— Ben Salmon