Bassist Karina Rykman
Marco Benevento will ride into Nashville on Jan. 26 to play Nashville’s Mercy Lounge. If you like to dance, go. Benevento first made his mark in the jam band scene nearly 20 years ago with drummer Joe Russo. Together the two of them created the beloved, but reclusive, Benevento/Russo Duo, a.k.a. The Duo. The Duo with Mike Gordon played a famous set at Bonnaroo 2005, and Benevento also played with GRAB (a.k.a. Mike & the Italians), a group that featured Benevento and Russo along with Mike Gordon and Trey Anastasio from Phish. He’s a member of Garage a Trois and also tackles the keys for Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (JRAD), the king of Grateful Dead cover bands.
Benevento’s latest studio album, The Story of Fred Short, is a funky distillation of the man’s influences. You can hear Elton John, jazz, gospel, Goodfellas, the Flaming Lips, pop, disco and electronic dance music. I recommend Benevento’s live album, Woodstock Sessions. It’s a bunch of hot musicians playing hot tunes in their element. Benevento handles the keys, playing an old piano purchased from Craigslist modified with circuit benders and gadgets galore. The awesome Andrew Borger (Norah Jones, Tom Waits) joins on drums, and up-and-coming bassist Karina Rykman completes the rhythm section.
Rykman has had the gig with Benevento since 2016 after her mentor and former Benevento bassist Dave Dreiwitz recommended her for the job. A while back I spoke to Rykman, who loves to laugh. Her laugh is not unlike that of Tommy Wiseau, the actor best known for the cult classic film The Room. I mention this because Rykman laughed many times during our conversation, and had me laughing too.
Rykman does not have a driver’s license, one of many things she has in common with avant-garde saxophonist John Zorn. Also, they both live in New York City and share a passion for loud, improvisational music. Onstage, Rykman is all smiles, bubbling with energy, immersed in the music. Offstage, she is all smiles, bubbling with energy, immersed in the search for new music and the study of the music that she loves.
Even her day job revolves around music. She’s the general manager for Rocks Off, an independent New York City concert promoter. When she started in the band, Rykman could have given James Brown a run for his money as the hardest working person in show business. During her first year in the band, she worked at Rocks Off while finishing her senior year and graduating from NYU—all while touring around the country.
Rykman tells me her obsession with music began when she was 13 and her friend Bobby taught her “Seven Nation Army” on guitar. I tell her Third Man Records is across the street from Mercy Lounge and how the White Stripes played their last Nashville gig in 2007 at the Cannery Ballroom. If “Seven Nation Army” began her path, attending Bonnaroo 2009 at 15 solidified in her mind what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. She saw two of her favorite bands, the Beastie Boys and Phish, play on the same stage. The Beastie Boys performance would prove bittersweet, as it was the last time the Beastie Boys would ever perform. Beastie’s MCA would pass away from cancer in 2012. Karina still misses MCA all the time, she says. Growing up in Manhattan, her love of the Beastie Boys was ingrained in her identity. She listens to at least one Beastie Boys song every day. The hell-raising, party time Beastie Boys atmosphere shows in her playing.
Benevento’s band is serious about having fun and making people dance, whether it’s when Rykman belts the Butthole Surfers’ “Pepper” or when she drops fuzz-bass teases of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” and AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” during songs. Wait, did you say Black Sabbath? In a jam band? Why, yes, I did say Black Sabbath. Rykman is the metalhead of the band. She cut her chops playing guitar in thrash metal outfit ShitKill. She loves Prong and Pantera, can toggle between Bob Dylan and Slayer or hip-hop and classic country, and tells me she loves Sturgill Simpson. She demands that I listen to Phoebe Bridges.
Her varied tastes help her play Benevento’s complex, genre-defying music, and also bleeds through in the music of her own improvisational psychedelic trio, The Karina Rykman Experiment.
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For more information on Karina Rykman, visit karinarykman.com. Marco Benevento performs at the Mercy Lounge in Nashville on Saturday, Jan. 26. Go see this damn band. Things quickly go from recreational to medicinal, as Karina is fond of saying.
