It’s difficult to imagine of a more inaccessible band for small children than Medeski Martin & Wood. In all my years of being the creepy guy in just a trenchcoat and knee high socks at the local playground, I’ve never heard a parent say, “You know what my kid loves? Acid jazz! And he adores five-minutes percussion solos!”

All photos by our main man Danfun

But there I was at 6 pm last night, draped in my weekday business casual in the Time Warner Center’s Borders book store, watching the always-entertaining trio play a bunch of tracks from their new kids album, Let’s Go Everywhere.

A crowd of children sat in front of the band, most of them seemingly digging the music about cats, pirates and choo-choos, while a throng of equal parts hippie and hipster watched behind them, trying their best not to rock out in such a public place. And of all the venues I’ve done the head-bob, right knee-bend and foot tap to live music, Borders may now be a top contender for the strangest of places.

Read on for more of Danfun’s photos from the book store…

The understated Chris Wood sang lead on The Train Song, a clever little ditty about, well, train sets and their owners. In the dozens of times I’ve seen MMW throughout my life, I think this may have been the first time I’ve ever heard vocals. And even though I’ve seen Chris sing before as part of The Wood Brothers, I couldn’t help but think this band could benefit from the occasional opening of the mouth. He’s actually got a pretty damn good voice.

A couple of these girls up front stood and danced wildly in front of Billy Martin for much of the set, leading me to be thankful there was no backstage area.

Medeski freakin’ loves that melodica…he likes to break that out more and more these days, and not even just for kids’ tunes. I dig it because it looks ridiculous, but it really is an excellent weapon for his key-related arsenal.

The highlight of the quick show was “Where’s the Music,” a truly funky start-stop number that required the crowd to yell out the song’s title on several occasions — I’m not sure what differentiated that song from being a MMW tune for grown-ups, but it was fun to listen to either way.

I’m definitely picking up a copy for my darling little nephew, and I can’t wait to buy my copies of King Crimson for Kids and E.L.O. Junior next Christmas.