Thursday, October 01, 2009

Stand and Deliver

Guest post today from YKW:

My wife and I attended the U2 concert at FedEx Field last night with 80,000 other lucky souls and had a great time except … every time we got up to dance the guy in the seats behind us yelled we should sit down. The first time he did that I turned around, smiled and exhorted him to “stand up and dance!” since it was, after all, A FRIGGIN U2 CONCERT. About halfway through the concert (and we did not stand the whole time), I noticed the guy had left the seats behind me.

Normally, standing up and blocking the view of the people behind you is rude – if you stood during the pitches of a baseball game, I think the people behind you would be correct in asking you to sit. Standing up when everyone in front of you are already standing makes sense, so you can see over them. But I think there’s a generally accepted dancing-at-a-rock-concert exception to the sitting down rule – especially when the band plays one of their big numbers, and it is danceable, you’re SUPPOSED to be up and dancing, even in the upper deck of FedEx Field. Am I right?