OAKLAND — “It’s like we’re partying at the end of the world,” said Kathleen Hanna, the lead singer of Bikini Kill, too a sea of fans at Mosswood Park, midway through the final set of the two-day Mosswood Meltdown festival on Sunday night.

The apocalyptic vibe arose not just from the two-year COVID-19 pandemic, but from the regressive political changes wrought by the Supreme Court in just the last two weeks.

“I just want to encourage everyone to vote,” Hanna told the audience in between songs.

While Bikini Kill implored the audience to pursue positive social change at the ballot box, the band (and audience’s) righteous indignation found catharsis in the quartet’s bombastic set. Launching into 1993 single “New Radio,” the band’s brash, in-your-face attitude had the huge crowd singing along and dancing wildly in place. It took a song before the front of the crowd began moshing, but once it did, it was non-stop.

The original “riot grrrls,” Bikini Kill were one of the first all-female punk bands to gain popularity in the ’90s, following in the steps of pioneering rockers like The Runaways and Poly Styrene’s X-Ray Spex. In the words of John Waters, “[Bikini Kill] still personify the kind of gal we salute here at Mosswood Meltdown.”

Trading off instrumental duties, the band ran through a sampling of material from its initial seven-year run from 1990 to 1997. Material varied from the melodic and tuneful “False Start,” off the band’s 1997 album, Reject All American, to the frantic rock energy of “Lil Red” from 1993 album Pussy Whipped. Fans went wild for double-time chaos of “Suck My Left One,” from 1991’s Revolution Girl Style Now!, which concluded the band’s hour-long set.

After a short break, the band returned for an encore of “Double Dare Ya” and “Rebel Girl.” Hanna, dressed in a sleeveless red and blue dress, told the audience the story of her mother going to see John Waters’ film 1981 film, “Polyester,” and how the film had made her mom feel more alive. Hanna emphasized the importance of sharing one’s passion and gifts with those around you.

Perhaps Mosswood Meltdown’s most anticipated debut, teen sensations The Linda Lindas preceded Bikini Kill on the main stage on Sunday. The band, which burst onto the scene with a viral video performance of “Racist Sexist Boy” at the L.A. Public Library, has spent the last year opening up for legendary acts like Bikini Kill and Jawbreaker. The Linda Lindas, who now range in age from 11 to 17, have tapped into the empowering nature of punk rock, and the crowd was absolutely there for it. Much like Bikini Kill, The Linda Lindas traded off vocal duties during their set. One dynamic musical passage the band played sounded almost exactly like a riff Bikini Kill would play later, and that Pansy Division had played earlier.

The language of punk rock may be simple but that’s part of where its power comes from.

The band played an enervating rendition of their female punk antecedents The Go-Go’s “Tonight,” sung by drummer Mila de la Garza. The song’s suggestion of carping the diem seems even more relevant coming from the next generation.

The musicians had some technical glitches but stayed calm and endeared themselves to the crowd with their teenage banter.

“In this song we’re talking about people oppressing other people,” guitarist Lucia de la Garza said, introducing the song that made them famous. Luckily for us, the language and message of punk rock music still has a place in each subsequent generation.

The earlier acts on day two of the festival once again alternated between the large field stage and the smaller amphitheater stage, with Sunday’s much larger crowd perambulating between locations every hour or so. By the end of the day, the amphitheater crowd for Hunx and his Punx made crowdsurfing much easier than social distancing. Hunx and his Punx frontman Seth Bogart stoked the crowd’s libidinous energy with his G-string, leather motorcycle jacket and illicit stories of his previous evening’s erotic adventures. The Punx were joined by Shannon Shaw, who wowed crowds the day before with her powerful set on the main stage.

Young punk kids were seen forming core memories as they surfed the crowd to the Punx’s ode to youth, “The Curse of Being Young.” In the song, Bogart sings, “Love and tears and pain are my fate/ I gotta another million years of heartbreak/ That’s the curse of being young.”

“If you have weed, or drugs, or kittens, throw them on stage now,” Bogart told the crowd later in the set.

A couple songs later, a joint landed on stage. “Wait, what kind of weed is this?” Bogart asked. Later, Bogart placed a large mushroom that landed on stage in his G-string “for safe keeping.” 

Amphitheater performances included pioneering queercore act Pansy Division.

“Thirty years ago we played at [legendary punk club] Gilman Street with Bikini Kill, so it’s nice to be back here with them,” guitarist-vocalist John Ginoli told the audience.

The band stoked the crowd with queer punk anthems like “Femme in a Black Leather Jacket” and a song about, “the Mount Everest of cock,” according to Ginoli: “Dick of Death.”

The band’s high-energy set got the crowd dancing, particularly lead guitarist’s Patrick Goodwin’s blistering solos played while standing on the speakers at the front of the stage.

Queer man for all seasons Brontez Purnell brought his influential punk band The Young Lovers to the amphitheater stage earlier in the day. But because Purnell just recently turned 40, he felt the band’s name was no longer appropriate, and jokingly suggested instead they be known henceforth as “The Old Haters.”

Purnell sprinkled his set with stories, anecdotes and even brought out his very young niece onstage, telling her, “Uncle Brontez is gonna fight those motherfuckers for you every single day.” Much of Burnell’s material was frank and autobiographical, chronicling his enthusiasm for gay cruising and astrology.

One of the standout performances on the main stage came earlier in the day when Valencia, Spain’s Podium blew the crowd away with its pummeling performance. Frontwoman África Mansaray projected superhuman energies, calling to mind the insane intensity of early Fishbone performances. Mansaray belted out lyrics in Spanish from the stage before climbing down into the crowd and singing a couple songs from the front of the stage. The band’s sound managed to blend the driving, industrial pummeling of bands like Ministry with the riotous punk energy of The Ramones.

San Jose’s The Fevers delivered a set of nostalgia-tinged punk covers on the main stage in the mid-afternoon.

John Waters explained in his introduction that Fatty Cakes and the Puff Pastries were from another F-word: Fresno. The five-member all-female group included keyboard and xylophone players, and their campy pop-rock fit the festival’s vibe to a T. Lead vocalist Amber Fargano coaxed suprisingly cool rock sounds from her electric ukulele.

Oakland’s The Vaxxines kicked things off with a set of powerful melodic punk in the amphitheater while the band’s wandering “nurses” offered the crowd green liquid “booster shots” from plastic syringes. The Vaxxines finished their set by inviting Oakland saxophonist Mike Waters to join the band for a raucous cover of X-Ray Spex’s 1978 hit, “Bondage No More.”

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.