Ok. Quick story about something that happened last night at Billy Joel:
(SET-UP: We're at Wrigley Field. The stage is in deep center field. There are seats all in the outfield. I'm with my girlfriend, her father and his wife. We're in section 223 of Wrigley, which is on the lower level, but pretty far back- maybe 70 rows. We're in the second to last row before the main area of food/beer vendors and exit ramps)
Billy Joel comes onstage and begins with a rocker ("Big Shot"). The crowd is having fun. Everyone in the close outfield seats stand up and begin rocking. Everyone where I am remains seated... except for one woman, about 10 rows down from me. She is in her late twenties (WOMAN A) and (let's call it) dancing: swaying back and forth and waving her arms around. Honestly, if someone made a bad movie that wanted to involve a comedy scene about someone dancing poorly at a concert, it would be this woman. It was laughable what she was doing.
Joel begins his second song, and it's clear that WOMAN A is going to be dancing the whole concert. The people seated directly behind her are clearly getting agitated, so WOMAN B, seated right behind her, clearly asks her if she could just sit down because it's making things hard to see. While I'm not sure exactly what was said, it's clear that WOMAN A said that she would not do that. She tries to go back to dancing, but is now being spoken to by B & B's four rowmates. Finally, A sits down, clearly irate. She spends the next few songs pouting (both in person and on her phone) and glaring back and sharing harsh words with B. (The only sentence I clearly point out is A yelling at B, "Don't say another [expletive]-ing word to me!")
As the night moves on, there are moments when we are all standing (Joel brings out 25 or so members of the military, and we are all on our feet when he closes with "Piano Man" and throughout his entire encore). But, for most of the show, my entire section (a group of 300 or so) remain seated. There are a few exceptions (two twenty-somes decide to shimmy their way through "We Didn't Start The Fire" & "River Of Dreams"), but not really. This had me looking around the ballpark (specifically the area where people would sit during games) and notice that for the most part people were sitting, except for the rare swathe of people who just did not care. And it made me think about one time when I was in the Riv balcony seeing Ben Folds and I was asked to sit down.
So, who is right? If you're at a concert and everyone around you is sitting, should you remain seated? Or, should you follow your (assumably) alcohol-fueled heart and dance like no one is watching?