In case you didn’t notice, the students are back, and with them the annual concert offered to let them know about The Ark, Ann Arbor’s internationally known acoustic music and more venue. This year’s student welcome show, Thursday night, features New York pop trio Pearl and the Beard.

All are welcome, but students with ID get in free.

Pearl and the Beard - Jocelyn Mackenzie, Emily Hope Price and Jeremy Styles - employ three voices, one cello, one guitar, one glockenspiel, one melodica, several drums and one accordion to make their brightly melodic songs that have helped propel the trio out of the confines of the New York music scene.

Their live show is known to be energetic. From subway platform to park to field to a stage like The Ark’s, Pearl and the Beard take over whatever space they occupy, including the people occupying it with them.

Even celebrity gossip maven Perez Hilton loves them. “Sweetness indeed! Sweet, indie, folk pop! We love it!” he gushed recently, and who are we to argue?

The Pearl and the Beard Student Welcome Show is at The Ark, 316 S. Main St., at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 5. Admission is free with student ID (non-students, $12). Details at www.theark.org or 734-761-1800.