Karina Rykman Turns Her Sold-Out Racket NYC Headliner Into a 15-Track Live Album

Bassist Karina Rykman released Live At Racket NYC 2024 on August 10, 2024, a 15-track document of her headlining show at Racket NYC in Manhattan.

The performance took place on Saturday, May 18, 2024. Racket is a 650-capacity club, the show sold out, and it stood as the biggest headline crowd of Rykman’s career to that point.

Tickets moved fast. The show sold out within hours, many months in advance.

From Baby’s All Right to a 650-cap room

Rykman’s previous proper hometown headline show had been a September 2023 release party for her debut LP Joyride at Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right, a 280-capacity room. The Racket booking more than doubled that number.

The scale of the night registered on stage. “You’re gonna make me cry too early in the game,” Rykman told the crowd.

The set, in full

Rykman played the show with Adam November on guitar and synths and Chris Corsico on drums. The album’s 15 tracks are “Beacon,” “Joyride,” “All That You Wanted,” “Plants,” “Dirty South,” “Spring Theme,” “City Kids,” “Song 2,” “Run Of The Mill,” “Satanist,” “Reboot,” “No Occasion,” “Genius of Love,” “Atom Dance” and “Elevator.”

Four of those are covers: Ween’s “Springtheme,” Blur’s “Song 2,” boygenius’ “Satanist” and Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love.”

Booked in February

Rykman announced the Racket date on February 7, 2024. An artist presale used the password JOYRIDE, with the general on-sale following on February 9 through AXS.

The release puts Rykman alongside other 2024 acts building their catalogs out of stage tapes rather than studio time, among them Asbury Park’s Dogs In A Pile, who will compile a year of live recordings this November.

Sources: Karina Rykman on Bandcamp, Live For Live Music, JamBase.

Photo: R A, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.