IRON BUTTERFLY at Maschinenhaus Berlin - 28 Sep 2010
87 photos on Flickr
My brief review:
Legendary psychedelic rock band Iron Butterfly played the Maschinenhaus Berlin on 28 Sep 2010. The gig was moved from the Kesselhaus to the smaller Maschinenhaus on short notice. The Concert was organised by 'Café Garbaty in exile' and rockradio.de. Cafe Garbaty was a fine Berlin blues club, which had been moved from their location and have currently no rooms of their own. Nevertheless they keep organizing gigs e.g. at the Maschinenhaus Berlin and at Chester's in Pankow.
Current Members:
Ron Bushy (dr) - fell ill and was replaced by Ray Weston
Lee Dorman (bass, voc)
Charlie Marinkovich (git, voc)
Martin (Martino) Gerschwitz (key, voc)
Psychedelic rock band Iron Butterfly is best known for the 1968 hit "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida". Their heyday was the late 1960s, but the band has been reincarnated with various members.
Although only 2 original members are left, the band is worth being seen. Unfortunately, drummer Ron Bushy had to be hospitalized and was forced to stop touring. There was a replacement drummer, Ray Weston, who worked formerly with Wishbone Ash. So just bass player Lee Dorman was left from the original line-up. Lee is from St Louis and played also in the band 'Captain Beyond'. I thought he looked rather frail that night and played sitting on a stool. Nevertheless he managed the whole set, and I tip my hat.
Between the songs, Lee talked about the early days when the band moved from San Diego to L.A., played at the Club „Whisky A-Go-Go“, and were discovered by Atlantic Records. Eventually they landed a record deal with Atco. Many press people among the audience, I added some comments below.
Ganz sicher hat der eine oder andere ebenso seine Erinnerungen an diese Zeit wie ich. Es gibt wohl kaum noch eine Chance, diese Band wiederzusehen, daher war es ein MUSS dabeizusein. Leider wurde erst am Konzertabend angesagt, dass der Drummer Ron Bushy im Krankenhaus liegt und die Tour abbrechen musste. Viele Fans waren auf ihn gespannt (hauptsächlich wegen seines legendären Schlagzeugsolos), und so blieb nur der Bassist Lee Dorman als einziges Originalmitglied übrig. Er (obwohl gesundheitlich auch nicht ganz auf der Höhe) und die anderen Bandmitglieder machten ihre Sache jedoch ausgezeichnet, so dass letztlich niemand enttäuscht nach Hause ging. Martin (Martino) Gerschwitz am Keyboard, der Deutscher ist, aber jetzt in Kalifornien lebt, hat mir besonders gut gefallen, es lohnt sich, nach seinen Solokonzerten Ausschau zu halten; er kommt regelmäßig in seine alte Heimat Deutschland.
About Lee Dorman, (bass guitar - vocals)
Producer, writer, arranger, including: Captain Beyond.
For over 30 years, bass player Lee Dorman has been the driving force of the legendary rock group Iron Butterfly. He discovered the rock groups Blues Image (of "Ride, Captain, Ride" fame) and Black Oak Arkansas and successfully engineered recording contracts for both bands on the ATCO label (a subsidiary of Atlantic Records). He also co-produced the first Black Oak album, called Black Oak Arkansas. After touring with Iron Butterfly for 7 years, he created the progressive rock band Captain Beyond. Known for being ahead of its time with its jazz-rock influences in multi-time signatures, the group today, still has a cult following throughout the world and even has three "unofficial" websites ... one of which is Japanese. Lee, who has had a major influence on bass players for the past 30 years, has also produced, written and arranged the music for a Harley Davidson promotional video. He is currently working on his autobiography, a cookbook, and involved with the VH1 production "Where Are They Now?" segment on Iron Butterfly.
About Charlie Marinkovich, (lead guitar - vocals)
Charlie originally hailed from the Pacific Northwest long before there was a "Seattle Scene". He has played with many different bands including Randy Hansen and has continually been involved in numerous recording projects. In the 90's he relocated to the San Francisco, Bay Area and formed Apocalypso with Larry Carter (Romeo Void) and Bill Klein which through sheer musicianship caused quite a stir. Charlie's signature guitar style and tone combined with his powerful vocal abilities made him a natural choice for Iron Butterfly.
A press reviewer says (German only): Charlie Marinkovich spielte ausdrucksvoll-schmutzige Gitarrenriffs und sang majestätisch-vollmundig die Lieder einer Generation.
About Martin (Martino) Gerschwitz, (keyboards/violin/lead and back up vocals)
Martin Gerschwitz's formula for success is a fine blend of luck, a whole lot of struggle, and a strong belief that some day he'll be at the top. That day is just around the corner for Martin Gerschwitz, the classically trained German born keyboardmaster. At the age of 16 he already played with big german orchestras, of course all classical music! Then in 1968, his older brother (who is a very successful Cello - player) gave him a record to listen to ("Five Bridges Suite" by The NICE, Keith Emersons first band), and Martin discovered Rock'n'Roll. Within 3 weeks, he put his first band together ("THE AVENGERS").....
Martin emigrated in 1985 from Germany to the USA and played with Lita Ford, Meat Loaf, Vanilla Fudge, Eric Burdon, just to name a few.
After the incredibly strange and weird break-up of "Eric Burdon & The Animals" in November of 2005, Martin was pretty much immediately asked to join "Iron Butterfly" (who is one of his favourite bands of his childhood, and he happily accepted the offer - he'll be the keyboardplayer and he'll take over a couple of lead vocal parts as well - and maybe at some point the violin will be part of the show again, too.....???
There wasn't any setlist ...... but I remember a handful of songs they played:
EASY RIDER
FLOWERS AND BEADS
STONE BELIEVER
BUTTERFLY BLUE (great organ by Martin)
and of course IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA (which everybody was waiting for).
Encore:
ARE YOU HAPPY?
