Go Rydell - The Golden Age
Go Rydell
The Golden Age
Go Rydell present the ultimate frustration: How badly can one bag a band for being so unoriginal when they're so forthright and honest about it? There's wearing your influences on your sleeves, and then there's Go Rydell, who practically tattoo them. They're an unfailingly merry melodic hardcore outfit from Orlando, Florida, clearly inspired by Kid Dynamite but sounding almost exactly like Shook Ones (save the heartache); that essentially makes them a derivative of a derivative. But they get away with those crimes on their debut full-length, The Golden Age, because they're so goddamn good at it.
The 10-track, 15-minute blast is quick and curt but finds enough time for tempo changes, driving guitars and a few corroded hooks. Melodic-hardcore lifers should be nothing less than psyched when furious, chiming guitars complement Chris Scaduto, Go Rydell's glass-gargling vocalist, loosely recalling on the title track, "Tryin' to remember/Those nights when all I had was a dollar seventy-five/And the gaslight was screaming at me"; or when a sudden acceleration into breath-taking speed on "Last Call" occurs; and probably when the blisteringly intense opening of closer "Levittown, LI" eventually gives way into a contrastingly joyous, "whoa-oh"-laden sing-along of nostalgia. It's moments like those that will make you so forgiving of Go Rydell for essentially rehashing a reliably awesome sound, because they do it in a pretty awesome way.
Black Numbers http://www.theblacknumbers.com
