The Dorkestra reunites tonight

What do you call it when a guitar player, a bass player and a classically trained fiddle player mix together in New York? The Dorkestra. This year's Lotus Festival will see the 10-year reunion of The Dorkestra, a unique-sounding band that will be playing at the Bloomington Convention Center from 7 to 8:15 p.m. Friday and then again at Second Story from 10:45 to 11:30 p.m. Saturday.\n"We played the first Lotus Festival," said Robert Shannon Metus, guitarist and vocalist for The Dorkestra, "and 10 years seemed like natural reunion timing."\nThe sound of The Dorkestra is a combination of influences from traditional Celtic music, the blues and folk, bands like REM, Elvis Costello and The Clash, as well as music greats like Billy Brag, Bruce Cockburn and Steve Goodman. Each band member brings one or more of these influences, and the resulting compositions are distinctive. Metus said the name of the group was an evolutionary process. Initially they were called "Robert Shannon and The New York Dorkestra." Metus explained that the name is a bit of self teasing, but in a 'we don't take ourselves too seriously' way.\nThe topic of the songs The Dorkestra performs often reflect a political message Metus wants to share. He said the political message in his early music has surprised even him. \n"Often when listening to my earlier stuff, I realize I was not quite as subtle as I thought," Metus said \nThe band formed in 1990 when Metus was doing graduate work at Columbia University. While there, he met Karl Meyer, a classically trained violin player who was at Columbia as an undergraduate. Jeff Faria, upright aluminum bass and vocals, and Jon Nisen, guitar and mandolin, were well known musicians in New York when they joined. They met their percussionist Dan Vonnegut, cousin to Kurt Vonnegut, after moving to Bloomington in 1991. For four years, the band traveled from Missouri to New York playing various venues.\n"It was great. We had a ton of fans everywhere we went, and they called themselves 'Dork-Heads'" Metus said.\nThe Dorkestra greatly enjoyed playing in Bloomington because it is an artistic community where those outside of the mainstream can find an audience. \nAlthough The Dorkestra's members went their separate ways, all but Metus are still professional musicians. \nMetus is now a Bloomington local and all other members will be coming in from out of town for this reunion: Faria from Arizona, Nisen from Chicago and Meyer from New York.\nA limited number of CDs will be available for sale at the Lotus Festival. The CDs are a "Best Of" collection of 20 songs, including five previously unreleased original tracks.