Good to Go 1986

S.D. Blass, Art Garfunkel, is a beat journalist for the Washington Daily Tribune in Washington, D.C. His editor-in-chief pressures him to deliver more featured stories, since Blass hasn’t had a strong article printed in a while. He reaches out to Detective Matthew Harrigan, Harris Yulin, hoping for a lead that could become a standout piece.

He learns about a nurse who was raped and murdered on her way home after working the night shift at Washington Metropolitan Hospital. Unbeknownst to Blass, the detective fabricated the police report and placed the primary blame on go-go music and its concertgoers. Blass writes and publishes the story with the provocative headline: “Nurse Murdered at Go-Go: Music and Drugs Blamed for Violence.”

Meanwhile, Max, Robert DoQui, is the owner of Maxx Saxx Entertainment and steers three of the city’s top go-go bands. After fifteen years of performing in local clubs, he believes the moment has arrived to take go-go music national. He arranges a high-stakes meeting at the Watergate complex with Gil Colton, a Los Angeles–based record producer, hoping to secure a recording contract for his artists. Colton is impressed by the live energy and the music, but he worries about the bad press and the potential fallout, and ultimately decides not to sign the acts, returning to L.A.

Little Beats, an up-and-coming conga player for one of Max’s bands, has an older brother known as Chemist, a once-promising chemistry student who slides into PCP (aka “Luv Boat”) addiction and turns to robbing and stealing to fund his habit. He moves with Mr. Ain and his street crew as they roam the city, leaving a trail of chaos that includes the nurse’s rape and murder.

Eventually, Chemist is falsely accused and charged with the offenses. Little Beats is apprehended by Det. Harrigan, in hopes of extracting more information about Chemist’s whereabouts. Blass, now aware that the detective has manufactured many police reports, withdraws his support for Harrigan. He then reaches out to Little Beats, Chemist, and their mother to help clear Chemist’s name and to expose the misconduct plaguing the police department.