Dance Like No One's Watching

I recently saw a band called Mute Math in concert. If you haven't heard of them, they're a band from New Orleans and they put on a really good live show. As far as the type of music they play, I guess the easiest way to describe would be to say it's rock you can dance too - along the lines of The Killers or The Bravery. They were playing a really small venue in town and tickets were only $14 so it seemed like a great opportunity to see a good concert for pretty cheap.

One of the things I enjoy about concerts is seeing what cross section of people are there. I’ve always felt that the music people listen to tells you a lot about them. So invariably, I’m intrigued to see what types of people are enjoying the same music I enjoy because on some level I must have something in common with them. When I first arrived at the concert, the first thing I realized was that I may be getting old since I was probably one of the oldest people there not including parents that were chaperoning their children for the evening. I started wondering if I was turning into one of those people that listens to the same music “the kids” are listening to as some sort of dysfunctional way of trying to stay hip. This was going to be a bitter pill to swallow if that was the case. I realize, I’m not getting any younger but I didn’t think I had become one of those people already.

As I stood near the bar, I watched the parade of kids saddle up to the bar and flash their wristbands at the bartender like some sort of badge of honour as if to say “Yeah, I don’t really like beer but I want you (and everyone else) to know that I can have one”.

The other thing that struck me about the crowd was the diversity in the group. Not the cultural diversity of course, since there are approximately three non white people that live in this city and they’re not allowed to be out past 9:00. The unique thing was that there seemed to be two distinct groups that were represented: There was the group of really clean cut kids who looked like mom and dad had dropped them off in the family mini-van for the evening and would be picking them up promptly at 11. Then there were the kids in the strategically ripped jeans with their freshly minted fake I.D.'s who had made sure their parents had dropped them off a block away and would be going home whenever they felt like it, or whenever their allowance money ran out – whichever came first.

As the band began I sort of became intrigued/distracted by a guy standing in front of me. I was distracted because of how “into” the music he was getting. The best way to describe him would be Ned Flanders meets Johnny Christian meets Nerd McNerdy. He was dressed in a button down blue oxford shirt and khakis with very sensible shoes. I couldn’t tell if he had just finished a tax audit or wrapped up his weekly bible study but either way, white boy had some serious moves and he wasn’t afraid to show them off. The problem was that his “serious” moves were seriously bad. The other problem was that I couldn’t keep my eyes off of him because he was totally oblivious to the fact that everyone was watching him. As I watched him throughout the concert I couldn't help but think, “So I guess this is what it looks like to dance like no one’s watching. I guess he can go ahead and check that off his to-do list”. That thought was followed shortly by the realization that although dancing like no one's watching seems like a good idea when it’s stitched on a pillow, it can be less of a good idea when actually put into practice.

The other interesting thing I observed was that as the concert progressed, the group of friends he had arrived with had slowly migrated away from him to the point where he was pretty much standing/gyrating by himself at the end of the concert. I sort of felt sorry for my accountant friend at that point and it was a reminder of just how fickle friends can be when you're a horrible dancer.

The truth is, I sort of admired the guy for not caring. It’s rare that you see that kind of reckless abandon on display and I think we could all learn a lesson from him. I for one am going to make a more concerted effort to throw caution to the wind on a more regular basis. In fact, I think I’ll start doing that tomorrow. Actually, tomorrow’s not so good. In fact this week probably won’t work at all. Plus, I should probably take some dance lessons ahead of time. I’d just hate to be unprepared for something this important.