1 of 3 2 of 3 Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday. Sign up for our free newsletter . “Vancouver—it’s been a long time,” Katie Crutchfield says.
“But we’re going to make up for lost time.” The Alabama-raised, Kansas City-based artist—better known by her music-making moniker of Waxahatchee—is at the Orpheum to tour her latest album, Tigers Blood , which she assures the audience that she and her band will be playing tonight in full. Wearing a red mini dress and silver ankle boots (plus a Kansas City ball cap that she throws into the audience during her opening song: the stinging “3 Sisters”), Crutchfield proceeds to put everyone in attendance under her Americana spell.
But first, Brooklyn band Woods warm things up, performing its brand of easy-listening folk-rock. There isn’t much talking—only keyboardist (and occasional hamonica player) Kyle Forester and multi-instrumentalist Jarvis Taveniere say a few words throughout the set. Lead singer Jeremy Earl, wearing a pair of slides that look like they have been weaved by a wood nymph, doesn’t address the crowd once, which feels a little strange—especially given that opening acts generally want to charm the crowd into looking them up on Spotify later.
But the music is good, with each member of the five-piece exuding serious instrumental chops. Of course, no talking equals no time-wasting, and Woods speeds through its set so fast that it ends up with a few additional minutes at the end—“We played efficiently,” Taveniere jokes—so they decide perform an extra song. Couldn’t tell you what it (or any of the others) is called, though, because they don’t introduce a single one.
They all have great hair, though, which feels important. While we’re on the topic, Crutchfield’s hair is excellent, too. Her long, thick, brown locks look alive, vibrant—unbrushed, but in a decisive way.
There’s a quiet confidence that she exudes from the second she walks onstage. It’s not in your face, it’s not dripping in ego; it is, at least from the outside, coming from a place of peace. Maybe that’s what happens when you mature into your own sound.
When you feel at home within yourself. Sara Harowitz After all, Crutchfield has been making music as Waxahatchee (named for a creek she grew up near) for over a decade. Her breakout came more recently, though, with 2020’s Saint Cloud —an album that comforted this author on many a lonely pandemic day—and she released its punchy follow-up, Tigers Blood , in March of this year.
(In between, she released 2022’s I Walk With You Always as Plains: a not-to-be-missed collaboration project with fellow musician Jess Williamson.) Thanks to her unmistakable twangy vocals, her gutting lyricism, and her lush, extensive soundscapes (there are two stage techs whose entire job is just to tune and swap guitars for each person), a Waxahatchee live show feels almost like being in a trance. There is something deeply meditative about witnessing Crutchfield croon for someone to “take my money/I don’t work that hard” on “Evil Spawn” or that she will “love you ‘til the day I die/I guess it don’t matter why” on “Can’t Do Much”.
Sara Harowitz She does play every song from Tigers Blood , including the wistful title track and the tender “Right Back to It”, but she also plays Plains’ kick-your-ass “Problem With It” and the strikingly self-aware “Hell”. Things wrap up with the epic love song “Hurricane” (a personal favourite) before an encore that includes a catchy new track (yes, Katie, give us more!) called “Much Ado About Nothing” that one can only hope gets released soon. To finish, she plays a livelier, more rock-heavy version of big hitter “Fire” from Saint Cloud .
It feels like a run of greatest hits, in the sense that every song is so good—every song elicits an, “I love this one!” Every song is true to the heart of the Waxahatchee ethos: vulnerable, apt, direct, achingly beautiful even as it hurts..
