Review: Waxahatchee reunites with St. Pete in breezy, heartland romp [PHOTOS]

Katie Crutchfield came riding into St. Petersburg on a high yesterday. Two nights beforehand, her band Waxahatchee played Nashville’s Ryman Theater where Lucinda Williams joined in onstage. Waxahatchee’s last two albums have a musical address on the same gravel roads as work by the Americana legend, and Crutchfield was still glowing from the experience as she walked down the spiral stairs at Jannus Live.

“It's night to be back in Florida,” the 35-year-old told fans after harmonizing through “Ice Cold” with bassist Eliana Athayde. “Let me tell you what—we like it here.”

She has long-reaching connections in the state, too. Her father is from Kissimmee, and her early bands played tiny shows on the peninsula as they cut their teeth. But it’s been more than 2,000 days since Waxahatchee played a show in St. Petersburg for Et Cultura, which might have featured the greatest indie-rock lineup of any music festival in Pinellas County that decade.

A lot’s changed for Crutchfield since then, and the world’s been upended even more. The Birmingham-born songwriter quit drinking along the way, and the clarity paved the way for Crutchfield to lean into a new, country-fied sound for 2020’s St. Cloud, a pandemic masterpiece that played like balm for folks and families holed up at home as scientists searched for a vaccine.

Friday’s 24-song, nearly 100-minute show was a great excuse to make up for lost time.

St. Cloud got plenty of attention on Friday night, and often accented Crutchfield’s connections to the South during songs like the slightly-sped up “Can’t Do Much” where her drawl on seemed more pronounced. The going-sober meditation “Oxbow” felt like an anthemic peak of an evening that found the band settling in after launching the tour just two weeks ago in her new homebase, Kansas City, Missouri.

Brushes of Wurlitzer from multi-instrumentalist Cole Berggren added to the laid back vibe of “The Eye,” one of a handful of almost laconic cuts from the set that wore an unapologetic, and refreshing, nowhere-to-go-in-hurry, energy. In a post-pandemic world that asks us all to go, go, go to pay rent and keep the lights on, it was nice to take an extra breath and soak in the sound of Waxahatchee bringing to life not just St. Cloud tracks, but every song from the band’s brand new LP, Tigers Blood.

There was an extra pep in the tempo of “Right Back To It,” which featured guitarist Clay Frankel dutifully performing the harmony MJ Lenderman put on record. “You guys are a lot of fun. You're making this real easy for us,” Crutchfield told St. Pete after performing the album’s lead single.

Colin Croom, Frankel’s bandmate in revered Chicago rock band Twin Peaks (which also needs to come back to Tampa Bay), laid down a whole lot of heartstring-pulling steel all night long (“365”), and another Windy City musician, Spencer Tweedy (yes), showcased why he’s one of indie-rock’s most sought after timekeepers by stitching together one hell of a pocket on “Witches” and “Problem With It.” The latter was one of three cuts in the set from Crutchfield and Jess Williamson’s Plains project (the band got muscular on “Line Of Sight,” whole “Hurricane” showcased Waxahatchee’s big three-part harmonies).

Friday night’s gig, however, mostly served to show fans what’s on the horizon for Waxahatchee as it leans into a sound that is straight out of the heartland that Crutchfield now calls home.

While some songs (“Burn Out At Midnight”) are classic breadbasket-of-America storytelling, others (“Bored”) find Crutchfield using her unique gift for lyrics and phrasing to re-invent alt-country for a new generation of people who don’t quite recognize the America immortalized in songs by genre progenitors like Williams and John Mellencamp.

And most heartwarming to see on Friday night was Crutchfield’s command, and comfort, onstage. She swaggered from side to side on “Hell” and the cross-album medley of “Ruby Falls” and “Wolves,” then soared vocally during “Lilacs” before inviting the opening band and crew from Good Morning onstage for a gang vocal on the new album’s title track.

A cover of Lulu’s “Drunken Angel” was beyond fitting, and seeing the entire band having a ball on encore-closer “Fire” made clear that Waxahatchee has plenty of great music ready to pour out of it with Crutchfield at the helm.

Sure, a lot’s happened since St. Pete last saw Crutchfield. She’s clearly grown so much—and we have, too—but Crutchfield is just now truly coming into her power. If that set was any indication, we’re in for one hell of a ride.

Setlist
3 Sisters
Evil Spawn
Ice Cold
Can’t Do Much
Problem With It
The Eye
Hell
Right Back To It
Burns Out At Midnight
Lone Star Lake
Crimes Of the Heart
Oxbow
Line Of Sight (Plains)
Witches
Crowbar
Ruby Falls>Wolves
Hurricane (Plains)
Lilacs
Tiger’s Blood
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Drunken Angel (Lucinda)
365
Fire