Waxahatchee is the indie music project of Alabama’s Katie Crutchfield, who appeared on stage at Toff In Town in only her second ever Australian show. With little fanfare, she launched into a song from one of her other projects, Great Thunder.
It seemed strange that she chose to kick off the 15-song set with something that isn’t on her third full-length album, Ivy Tripp, which was released in April. But with it’s repeated lyrics “Would you go? Would you go?” the Great Thunder tune beautifully set the scene for what felt more like a beat poetry night than a band performance, with the lyrics, rather than tunes, taking centre stage.
Crutchfield performed solo with a guitar and had the crowd mesmerised from the first bar, but there was little interaction, apart from when she pointed out that the crowd was “so quiet”, and therefore much better than Sydney, because “in Sydney they talk a lot”. It led me to wonder whether the Sydney crowd simply lost interest. The lyrics are special and the delivery was heartfelt, but without the input of her band, the songs – which spanned Ivy Tripp as well as Waxahatchee’s other two albums, American Weekend and Cerulean Salt – started to blend into one.
However, there’s no doubt it’s this simple-but-intense delivery that many people had come for, and Crutchfield kept the crowd engaged for the entire duration of the one-hour set. Some of the highlights included Bathtub, Brother Bryan and La Loose. On a cold winter’s night in Melbourne, her songs and voice wrapped the audience in a fluffy yet slightly depressing fleece onesie.
BY ISABELLE ODERBERG
Loved: The intensity.
Hated: The sadness.
Drank: Hibiki whiskey, neat.
