Bassist Karina Rykman Brings Fans On Joyful Ride In Philadelphia

2024 has been a big year for Karina Rykman: she’s shared a bill with Dave Matthews and a stage with My Morning Jacket, engaged in countless bass duels, and perhaps most improbably for a native New Yorker, she seems to have won the hearts of Philly sports fans! She attended Friday’s Flyers hockey game and took millions of fans to commercial break during Sunday’s Eagles football game; and both teams won decisively.

As if this weren’t enough, she and her band graced the stage on Friday night at The Foundry, a room over twice the size of the last room she played in Philly, and brought at least 10x the energy and sheer joy. (Just ask her new pal Gritty – he was there!)

In the spirit of paying it forward, Rykman invited the just-shy-of-ineffable Muscle Tough, a self-described futuristic funk fusion trio, to open the set. Now in their 10th year as a band, local heavyweights Ross Bellenoit (guitar/synth), Jonathan Colman (bass/synth) and Joe Baldacci (drums/synth), led their hometown crowd through a set of highly improvised sonic journeys, delivering a proprietary blend of well-studied jazzedelia that evoked the likes of Living Colour, Primus, and the Disco Biscuits.

While it would be a stretch to compare them to Kylie Minogue, they did close with a guiltily pleasurable cover of “Can’t Get You Out of My Head.” On the heels of this set, they’re opening for Lotus at Union Transfer on December 30.

Rykman and her band hit the ground running, opening with “Skylark/Slowlark,” a jam both fast and slow from her 2023 debut LP, Joyride. Guitarist Adam November immediately channeled Nile Rodgers, playing funky-as-hell chords up an octave or two. He’s got a DigiTech Whammy, folks, and he isn’t afraid to use it.

As November built echo upon echo, loop upon loop, the band rocked, rolled, and grooved their way through a series of well-known-by-now tunes, not shying away from the patina of the ‘80s that coats many of the tunes from Joyride.

Rykman stopped to lead the crowd through a rousing rendition of “Fly, Eagles, Fly,” before inviting Colman to the stage to fill out “City Kids,” made particularly interesting given how the bassists both are good at playing unlike your average household bassist.

The trio played a lot of tunes we already know, along with a number of newer tunes and even a debut or two that may or may not appear on their hopefully-coming-soon second LP. As is their wont, they also incorporated a variety of covers, including Wet Leg’s “Chaise Lounge” and LCD Soundsystem’s “Daft Punk Is Playing at My House,” and teases, dropping “Psycho Killer,” “So Fresh, So Clean,” and “Detroit Rock City” into her originals.

Rykman also improvised a paean to touring team member Dave, her favorite purveyor of terefah at Chelsea Market’s Cull and Pistol.

They call Philadelphia the City of Brotherly Love, derived from the Greek words phileo (love) and adelphos (brother); but the meaning extends easily to adelphi, Greek for “sister,” and the love in the room was in no short supply. It’s beyond exciting to follow Karina Rykman, who surely has good things in store for 2025.