All photos by Sammy Braxton-Haney and text by Raquel Alipoon
Day two of Mosswood Meltdown started off strong with rock powerhouse Tina!!! dipping into her large discography of impressive collaborations.
She played songs, “Never Get Enough” and “Easily Unkind” from band Top Ten, Holly & The Italians’, “Tell That Girl To Shut Up,” and of course, Tina and the Total Babes’, “She’s So Tuff”. With their classically feel-good garage-rock sound, the band fittingly brought the day in with punk spunk and vigor.
A bast from the past, but far from out of fashion as their biggest hit recently blew up on tik-tok, hip-hop duo L’trimm came to the stage to unite all ages with their feel-good, sassy bars of their opening song, “Better Yet.” Pioneers of mastering the turn table, Tigra and Bunny D cheekily announced, “We could walk so ya’ll could run” before hyping up the crowd into a dance party with mixed samples including but not limited to “Jealous Fellas” and “Make it Mellow.” They then debuted a new release, “Guilloitine” aptly named because Tigra and Bunny, “do not speak to the dead.” Tigra prefaced the track saying, “So everything that’s old is new now. So we decided we wanted to be brand new too.” Adopting current themes of rapping over stripped down basslines and beats, L’Trimm effortlessly fused their funky blasé style into hip-hop’s latest iterations of diss track style beats. Last but not least, they closed with their hit, “Cars That Go Boom.” Parents with kids on blankets in the back rapped along with every line while many young festival goers danced with a smile, knowing they’d have more music to add to their playlists. L’Trimm is a reminder for festival goers to come early or you might miss the grooviest dance party of the day.
After building a reputation in Italy’s underground punk scene, Italian rock and roll band Guida took off touring with their 2010 album Racey Roller. Fifteen years later, fans at Mosswood got down to their high-energy and fun-loving sound in songs like “Roll On” and “Coming Back to You.” The crowd was enamored with their high-energy front man singer whose animated dance moves perfectly characterized the bands suffusion of boisterous glam rock and grimy punk drum beats.
Next was Mosswood Meltdown’s annual wrestling drag show of raunchy smack-talk and take-downs in skid-marked underwear, presented by Haus of Libations.
Oakland home grown band Twompsax came on stage to give an equally entertaining, filthy, too-short ten-minute set. Full of joyful rage, lead singer Cher Strauberry resembled a marionetted doll with her loose style, thrashing on stage to the chaotic tracks of their album, I H8 ME.
Performing for the first time in over a decade, Oakland rap star Kreayshawn drew a dense crowd who rapped along to her haughty and often funny lyrics “Left Ey3,” “Missing Kitty,” and “Go Hard.” And of course, all hands went up for “Gucci Gucci” when Kreayshawn pointed to the crowd and rapped, “One big park, full of bad bitches.”
The crowd entered into a daze with indie-rock sweethearts La Luz. With an anchored bassline, La Luz streamed out their dreamy psychedelic guitar riffs. “Call Me in the Day” feels like a hot desert night, a witchy woman crooning you closer and closer into a starry stupor. This did not translate to sleepy, though, as “Floating Features” showcased their unique sound that moves into and beyond surf and garage rock into the eerie, feminine touched, far and away sounds of “Always in Love” and “Sure as Spring.”
Oakland royalty graced the stage when Shannon and the Clams, surprisingly, played at Mosswood Meltdown for the very first time. The band has brought that care-free doo-wop sound of the sixties into the 21st century, accompanied by exceptional story-telling lyricism thanks to Shannon and Cody’s ability to belt out harmonies in supple, raspy howls. The set started with the bittersweet, hopeful tracks, “You Will Always Bring Me Flowers” and “The Boy.” The band simply gave the audience a real good time. Their performance felt like a memory of summer, a release of winter tension, an opportunity to get giddy, silly, and unapologetically honest about feelings of love and longing. As the sun set, they led their biggest crowd yet into what one audience member described as her “arm-workout of the week” as each half of the crowd lifted their arms alternatively to “tik, tok” in “Dali’s Clock” until the very end of the song. The crowd left with smiles and full hearts as that timeless yearning found in “I Leave Again” and “Ozma” echoed in their heads long past the end of their set.
Girls to the front! Queen’s of the Riot grrl style punk, Bratmobile, were there to close the night of the best punk festival around. With themes of anger, frustration, and rage being dominated by men, Bratmobile ripped open the punk scene in the 90’s with their uniquely aggressive, in-your-face feminine lyrics and sound that asked, “who might have a more deserved claim to anger in society than women”? They were a godsend, an outlet, and a calling for girls to unapologetically stake their claim to the punk stage, mosh pits, and a boisterous resistance to conformity. True to all the girls, Allison Wolfe started off “P.R.D.C.T” with its signature opening line, “Hey, you positive bitches. You’re my punk rock dream come true!” before going straight into “I’m In The Band,” an anthem of dismissal to any annoyance conjured by girls joining the punk scene. Bratmobile was not an imitation of masculine-drenched punk but rather a new evolution of the movement, cheekily embracing the idea of the rude, flippant, un-ladylike woman. This was no more so as when they sang the lyrics to “Bitch Theme” responding to the common line, “you’re such a bitch” with a flattered, “Do you really think so?” The crowd rocked all night to “Gimme Brains,” “Panik,” and “Brat Girl” with no shortage of crowd surfing, as audience members took turns straddling a rocking horse being passed above everybody’s head. Mosswood Meltdown closed well with the most potent of punk, a carefree, rebellion-inducing mosh party called Bratmobile.
