"Who would have thought that skipping art school, playing the right songs, would get you into the Whitney?" Jared Phillips, Times New Viking

Honestly, I don't know what Jefferson Friedman's 3rd String Quartet (played by ACME's Clarice Jensen, Miranda Cuckson, Caleb and Nadia) and Times New Viking have to do with each other. The Friedman was mostly melodic, ending with some dissonant door-creaking that saved it from becoming saccharine. TNV's crashing punk-pop was fun and careless, pulling the crowd into a bouncing good mood.

Everyone likes to talk about how these Wordless shows introduce indie kids to classical music, with a minimum of pretense. And that's a good thing. But, what about the other way around? I spotted a few classical folks in the audience last night during the Friedman. Did they stick around for TNV? No. Did we miss them? Not really. (More pics after the jump.)