Waxahatchee @ SLC Twilight 08.06.2025

Indie artist Katie Crutchfield aka Waxahatchee on-stage at the Gallivan Center plaza in Salt Lake City on August 6, 2025.

Indie artist Katie Crutchfield, known by her project name Waxahatchee, on-stage at the Gallivan Center plaza for SLC Twilight on August 6. Photo: Ashley Christenson.

Image: Ashley Christenson

Concert

I fell in love with Waxahatchee upon hearing her harmonize with MJ Lenderman on “Right Back to It.” Known for her numerous collaborations and duets — with Jess Williamson on their project Plains and with her partner and singer-songwriter Kevin Morby, to name a few — Waxahatchee’s lush, lilting notes intertwine with and complement any voice. It was a wonder, then, that she sounded nearly identical live as she does on her 2024 album Tigers Blood.

Salt Lake City quartet Wilbere and Canadian group Foxwarren opened the night at SLC Twilight, each bringing their own strain of folk-tinged indie rock — Wilbere a little fuzzier, Foxwarren a little funkier. When Katie Crutchfield took the stage, dressed simply in a black dress, red tights and mary janes, and began singing “3 Sisters,” I felt the emotional weight of her stage presence. Topped off with the occasional harmonica and banjo, her vocals melted over the audience and enveloped me like a warm blanket. Though she has been aptly compared many times to country legend Lucinda Williams, I believe she is the same kind of “heartbreak balladeer” as the late Jason Molina.

I had hoped to hear Crutchfield and Morby’s cover of “Farewell Transmission,” but I was pleasantly surprised by her beautiful rendition of Kathleen Edwards’ “Six O’Clock News.” During “Crowbar,” as the moon peeked over the trees at the Gallivan Center and she sang, “You can take it pretty far on a prayer that’s pale and synthetic,” I raised my arms up like a worshipper in a megachurch. Another intimate moment came when she gravitated stage-right on “Oxbow” to gently incant “I want it all” over and over. A woman of few words, she hardly paused between songs but to shout out a heartfelt “Thank you so much!” in her sweet Alabama accent. The crowd beamed gratitude right back at her.