have you ever been to a concert where you bought a seated ticket… but the people in front of you got up and started dancing? have you ever been asked to sit down because someone behind you couldn’t see… while the people in front of you were still standing?
have you ever seen someone go row by row, asking people to sit down so they could see? at that point, i wondered how far forward they were planning to go.
anyway… i finally went to my first k-pop concert. high-energy music. singing. dancing.
how do you stay in your seat when the beat kicks in? well… apparently, that depends on who’s sitting behind you.
i bought a floor seated ticket. yes, i knew there would be a chair. i also knew i would probably spend very little time using it. and with everyone getting up, there was a good chance i wouldn’t have a clear view of the stage the whole time.
so there we were. singing, dancing, most of us on our feet.
then i noticed a woman speaking to the couple standing in front of me. she wanted them to sit down because she couldn’t see. she was sitting behind me, and it seemed she had been asking other people in front to sit down as well.
the couple sat.
i felt sorry for them. they looked like they wanted to keep dancing, but sat down to be polite.
i looked at her and waited. was i next? apparently not. she went back to her seat behind me without saying anything to me.
a slower song came on, so i sat down for a bit. then a song i liked started.
everyone screamed. i got up.
we were singing and dancing again. so were the people around us. except the couple in front of me.
and that bothered me a little. they had stopped doing something they were clearly enjoying because someone else wanted them to sit.
i understood that she wanted to see. i wanted to see too. but i had gone into the concert expecting people to get up and dance. perhaps she had gone in expecting everyone to stay seated.
same section. very different expectations.
the rest of the night had a fairly simple rhythm. music starts. we get up. a pause. we sit down. the beat picks up. so do we.
by then, sitting down was basically what we did while waiting for the next reason to stand.
after the concert, that little incident stayed with me. two and a half hours of music, and somehow i was still thinking about someone being told to sit down.
geez… of all the things to take home.
i kept thinking… isn’t it a concert? then another thought came.
if you’d gone to a Michael Jackson concert with a seated ticket, would you have stayed seated the entire time?
i went in expecting to get up and dance. someone else expected to be able to see from their seat.
so… what’s your opinion? where do you stand… or sit?
