The Dance Marathon will be featuring eight different bands, but only one will be from out of town. The Crowd, a band from Lehigh University, will be making the trek to State College to play the Sunday, 1:30 p.m. slot.

The Crowd's philosophy, according to lead singer John Pachence, is to play such a wide range of material that no one will go away disappointed. This is reflected in the band's repertoire of nearly 100 different songs which include such acts as The Cult Pachence said The Crowd tries to avoid top forty songs and often likes to surprise the audience with the band's diverse playlist.

"A lot of time people can't seem to believe that we're playing the songs that we play. Some bands just couldn't get away with playing what we do," Pachence said. "But our audience really eats it up."

After two years of tediously auditioning musicians, Pachence said he was finally ready to present the seven-piece band. The line up he patched together features a horn section and often utilizes five part harmony to the fullest.

Since The Crowd's debut a year ago, Pachence said he has had no doubts about what the band could achieve. Winning the Lehigh Valley Battle of the Bands solidified Pachence's original belief in the The Crowd's potential.

"We took off like a shot," he said.

The Crowd soon developed a huge following at Lehigh, Pachence said, and have continued to play to packed houses. The demands of the returning audiences has forced The Crowd to stay on its toes. To keep the following the band has developed, Pachence said, and have continued to play to packed houses.

"Lehigh's a small school and you get this following that are there at every show. If we played the same 35 songs, people would stop coming," he said.

After establishing themselves at Lehigh, Pachence said he felt it was time to start to branch out. The band began playing surrounding colleges and has since scheduled dates at Villanova, Penn, Syracuse and Delaware.

The Crowd's Dance Marathon appearance will not be its first visit to the State College area, either. The band has already played a few shows at two local fraternities.

Acacia's social chairman, Dan Stewart, booked the band to play a few parties and he said the reaction to the shows were extremely positive.

"Everyone was jammed into one room watching them and everyone was really getting into them," Stewart said.

"They're a band definitely out to please," he said.