Rykarda Parasol
The Silverlake Lounge
Los Angeles, California
By Victoria Joyce
(SugarBuzz Hollywood)
Photography by Dave Arnspiger
SugarBuzz Magazine
On one of the coolest July nights on record, San Francisco’s Rykarda Parasol brought her band to coolest rock bar in Silverlake. Seriously, the heat was on. Literally and figuratively.
“They want you on stage.” Bass man Brian interrupted our pre-set chitchat about the green-lit Janis Joplin film. It’s finally going to happen after a decade of tuning up. And it’s not Melissa Etheridge, Pink, Lilly Taylor or Renee Zellweger. Amy Adams will guzzle the Southern Comfort for the cameras. Rykarda is a big JJ fan and even wrote a song “Janis Don’t Go 
Back to Texas.” Lady blues singers stick together.
Rykarda took the stage with her three back up boys all leather vested, pearl-buttoned and cowboy booted in their dude, Goth-punk, rock regalia. Nice looking guys. They need to be. Ms. Parasol is simply stunning. Looking more like an actress-model playing a rocker; Rykarda is a tall, slim, platinum blonde donning a pulled back in a pony tail and wearing an slim black satin gown with a single ruffle running from her knees to her shoulder accented with a rhinestone lizard-shaped pin. Chic-rock. This band would look good on the cover of Spin or Vogue.
Starting 
the early bird set with a Creature Features, double deep twang blended beautifully with Rykarda’s throaty bluesy saloon singer’s voice. Eartha Kitt meet the Ravonettes. Rocking riffs counterpunch soft strokes on Parasols guitar (she writes, sings and plays) and looks amazing on the Silverlake Lounge stage. We love the lights that spell out “Salvation” arching overhead. It’s a one-way ticket to Rock and Roll Heaven.
Next song up is a nifty blend of British Invasion Blues Rock and stark dark poetry half spoken, half sung. Hello Nashville Teens, meet Patty Smith. Parosol spits out words giving a tough chick vibe but the lyrics are all heart. Gee-el-Oh-are-eye-ay.
The club fills up about half way, intimate yet roomy. Several photographers are there to shoot the Bay Area Beauty. Rykarda Parasol is all business, it’s song, song, song, hello in Swedish to some Scandinavian friends, and song, song, song.
The almost last song is a raspy punked-out
rocker with hooks that hesitate and a fist pumping beat. Boo ya. Parasol thanks her crew; Greg on guitar, Brian on bass and Nick on the drums. “We got time for one more.” Last number starts with a perididdle drum and relates a “bargain basement work of art” and other assorted existential images sung like Screaming J Hawkins. A deliberate inspiration. “It’d be cool to hear a skinny white chick sing like that.” She put a spell on me.
Rykarda tells us, “I have a hard time separating the visual from music. Music is an aid to story telling. I write music and words at the same time. Both being pulled along by the coherent thought. I think that’s why I became an artist. As a kid I had a hard time expressing myself.”
Back in San Fran where Parasol was raised, we got a chance to catch up with her on the phone. Rykarda claims two homes. Her Swedish Mom took her back to the old country for extended visits and she’s been pining for the fjords ever since. Rykarda took inspiration from the stark and Spartan art, architecture, graphic design, etc. “It was a big influence.”
RP Wants to do more touring and mos def prefers a tricked-out tour bus to the one-nighters. Rykarda Parasol and her band will be playing around the Bay Area this month; Aug 5th at the first concert series Academy of Science in SF and Aug 6th at the First Friday Artwalk
in San Jose.
Set List from the Silverlake Lounge:
A Drinking Song
Maggie
My Spirit Lives in Shadows
Lonesome Place
Covenant
Arrival, A Rival
Night on Red River
You Cast A Spell on Me
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