There were two good shows this weekend featuring Pennsylvania bands: on Friday, Dr. Horsemachine and the Moneynotes, the Minor White, and Paul Rogai -- all from Scranton -- played, and on Saturday, Illinois and Drink Up, Buttercup (both from Doylestown) as well as Cloverleaf (State College via Pittsburgh) performed.

But that's not what I want to talk about.

Friday's show was at Chronic Town and Saturday's was at the State Theatre -- two decidedly different venues. But where they were similar (at least in this case) was the fact that, until the headlining bands took the stage, the audience at both locales remained seated. In Chronic Town, there are a bunch of armchairs and sofas and a lot of floor space, whereas at the State Theatre there are simply theater-style seats.

Maybe I was tired, maybe the bands weren't that energetic, or maybe I'm just a bad person, but I would have been fine sitting through the entire performance on either night. Typically, if I'm standing the whole show, I usually dance a little bit. Not a whole lot, but more than an average amount of judgment or self-awareness should dictate. But this weekend, I felt like sitting, and I think a lot of other people did, too.

I probably would have stayed seated for the duration of the night in both cases this weekend had the rest of the crowd (most of it, at least) not stood up and obstructed my view. And I think most of these people would have stayed seated, too, were it not for a few people standing. In both cases, I overheard cadres of people talking amongst themselves, saying to each other, "Why is everyone sitting? We need to get everyone up and moving!"

This is not the job of the audience, much less a small, small portion of it. The entire crowd was forced to stand -- perhaps against their will, perhaps not -- and it was solely because a few selfish concert goers thought it their duty to make everyone dance.

As an arts reporter, I don't get to break many stories, but here's a newsflash: people go to nightclubs to dance. They go to concerts to hear good music. Sometimes you can hear good music at a club, and sometimes you can dance at concert. These things are not mutually exclusive, but they're not required, either.