I can’t know for sure, but I’m close to positive that I could tell you whether you will or will not like Ludo without even meeting you. If you have a sense of humor, I’m fairly confident you will enjoy the rollicking lyrics lead singer Andrew Volpe belts out in songs with titles like “Girls On Trampolines.” On the other hand, if you’re one of the humorless fiends I see wandering in and out of the Law Library sporting the gravest expression you can muster, you might find the band a bit too unruly for your taste.

If you had a childhood, there’s a good chance that “Ode to Kevin Arnold” will remind you of all of your fondest “Wonder Years” memories. On the other hand, if you’re one of those people who was born at age 40, thought “The Wonder Years” was cheesy 10 years before any of the rest of us realized it and hated movies like “Labyrinth” (the David Bowie classic from which the band’s name was taken), you may find the band a bit too immature for your taste.

If you think that a good time is a good time, I’m pretty sure that you’ll have exactly that if you come see the St. Louis-born quintet rock Union South this Saturday night. On the other hand, if you’re one of those people who think that drunkenness is a “social construction,” that class should never, ever meet outside, that Weezer’s blue album could never be as worthwhile as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and that “Girls on Trampolines” isn’t the best song title you’ve ever heard of, don’t even bother showing up.

Ludo is simply a breath of Alpine Valley fresh air in a Nuevo-punk rock scene that often seems far too focused on being cool and punkish and not focused nearly enough on writing good music. Technically, the band defines itself as a “pop-punk” band, but Volpe, lead guitarist Tim Ferrell, keyboardist Tim Convy, bassist Marshall Fanciullo and drummer Matt Palermo collectively manage to make pop songs rock.

Touring for the past year, Ludo has made a name for itself everywhere from Midwestern college towns to the Big Apple (where it recently played with The Big Wu) based on Volpe’s clever lyrical style and storytelling ability. The band tells stories about everything from love lost to depression to high-school parties and manages to bring Eddie Murphy-sized grins to its appreciative audience in the process.

Ludo’s self-titled debut album sports 12 tracks. The album is available online at the band’s website www.ludorock.com, or you can get it at the show this Saturday. It’s an admirably solid first effort, with no noticeable filler tracks and at least five songs that will have you humming to yourself for weeks.

The band’s sound is something of a mixture. In a style similar to Ben Folds or Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo, Volpe jam-packs his lyrics into verses. The guitar sound, on the other hand, has more similarity to a power-punk band like Blink 182. The band then mixes in a bit of Beach Boy-fashion ’50s-pop appreciation and a sense of humor that can only be described as one-of-a-kind. The combination is irresistible and can make you actually bang your head, tap your foot and laugh hysterically all at the same time.

Ludo often will get grouped in with so many pop-punk contemporaries because of the band’s ability and desire to blow audiences away with guitars. But such an impression is misleading.

“If you’re in a rock band with clever lyrics that make people laugh, people want to throw you in with Blink 182 or Good Charlotte,” Ferrell explained. “What we do is rock. There’s nothing really punk about it.”

The band definitely does have much more to offer through Volpe’s lyric-writing talent than other current bands in its genre. In the song “Roxy,” Volpe tells the tale of a European adventure involving a French girl he knows only by the name on her shirt. “Oh Roxy, don’t you love me? / Is it because I’m American?” he sings.

On “Hum Along,” probably the album’s strongest track, Volpe tells of his genuine love for a girl he’s never talked to. He goes on to make up scenarios from which he would rescue her. “Maybe you’d be kidnapped by pirates / who would take you to their hideout / as pirates often do.”

Many songs, like the Beach Boys-esque “Summertime” and the ’50s-influenced “Laundry Girl” are in fact drenched in oldies with their three-part harmonies and delicate phrasings. But Tim Ferrell’s driving guitar, along with a splash of synthesizer, gives the songs an updated, unique sound. You wouldn’t think that heavy-metal guitars and ’50s-influenced pop songs could appear on the same record, much less the same song, but throughout the album it’s the seamless marriage of these two characteristics that sets Ludo apart from its peers.

The metal/oldies relationship is most evident on “Sara’s Song,” which starts out sounding like an Everly Brothers ballad and ends in typical rock desperation with the full band begging poor “Sara” to stay.

The album itself is wonderful, but seeing Ludo play live Saturday night, opening for Longwave is the only way to get a real taste of Volpe and company.

“We’ve always loved coming up to Madison, and we really can’t wait to play with Longwave,” says Palermo. Come see Ludo this Saturday night. You’ll be in for a treat.

Ludo plays Club 770 in Union South at 8:30 p.m. this Saturday, Oct. 18. The show is all-ages and there is no cover.