I drove into Memphis from class too late on Thursday to catch Nots, so I saved my first Goner show of the weekend for local favorites of mine, Trampoline Team (NOLA). They were playing in the outside lot of Memphis Made Brewing Company right down the street from Goner Records itself.
The band was staged in front of a giant “I <3 Memphis” mural. The sun was close to setting and the weather was nice, okay… better-than-Louisiana nice. It was perfect for a good… punk show? Honestly, it doesn’t even matter. Get these bands out here. Force people to listen.

“What’s up, Goner Bros?”

You hear Michael blurt over the microphone. After noticing Shelby still assembling the hi hats, he bought some more time with a joke, “Thanks! We’ve got one more.” But once they were actually ready, jokes aside and ready, they rip right into it. And it’s loud. Oh, and before I tell you about how fast and mean this show was… how any Trampoline Team show goes… listen to their records. Go to their Bandcamp. Summon their tunes in any fashion you wish!
Trampoline Team brought their snotty punk attitude on the first song, “I don’t like you! I don’t need you!” The bassist and lead vocalist, Sam, yells and shouts and it’s never at you, but it is really fun and you definitely don’t want to be the person she’s talking about. Their lyrics are no-bullshit warning signs with a playful punk sound that makes you want to sing along. With self-titled genre labels such as “fuck you” and “shut up” this band doesn’t do much to hold back. So, that sort of thing… they bring it at 80 miles per hour. It is so. good.
The set was short and quick and brought the punch on catchy rippers like “I Ain’t Got Shit” and “You’re Wrong” from their latest release. They threw in some new material and it still ruled. The Goner crowd is sometimes tough I notice, but they nodded to the speed of the songs, one after the other. It’s all in the head bang and throwing fists in the air, so they got the crowd’s admiration. Honestly, there really isn’t a way to not enjoy a Trampoline Team show.
Their set ended with “Everybody Dies.” Michael jumped into the crowd begging to get pushed around. I don’t know if it worked, so he ran behind the drums, climbed a stack of amps and gracefully placed his guitar at the very top of the mural and got down. That’s it. They were done.

And once they’re done, you just want
them to do it all over again.

Trampoline Team’s debut LP Make It Faster (2015) and their hard-to-find and sold-out EP Velveteen Dream is out on New Orleans’ Pelican Pow Wow Records for your ears. You can find my Gonerfest 13 Mixtape here.