Waxahatchee brought heart, soul and 'Tigers Blood' to Orlando's Beacham

Last weekend, Katie Crutchfield steered her band Waxahatchee into The Beacham. Joined by Clay Franklin (guitar and background vocals), Colin Croom (pedal steel guitar), Spencer Tweedy (drums and backing vocals), Cole Berggren (keys and banjo) and Eliana Athayde (bass), Crutchfield presented songs from her sixth studio album, Tigers Blood.

Tigers Blood hits hard emotionally and musically, straight through the heart. It’s a record full of nostalgia for pieces of a problematic past, the power of perseverance and protective declarations of self-reflection.

First, though, indie rock duo Good Morning (Stefan Blair and Liam Parsons) from Australia opened the night with a four-piece backing band, including saxophone and violin. The band delivered melodic hooks and danceable lo-fi sounds to open the evening.

Waxahatchee’s set design was softly grand, featuring three wooden arches decorated with lights illuminating the Alabama-born, Kansas City-based musician. Crutchfield, clad in denim and a cotton crop top with a trucker hat containing her long, billowing hair, conveyed an aura of Southern hospitality as she opened the show with the nostalgic and literary “3 Sisters.” Near the end of the opening number, Crutchfield moved from behind the microphone, walked closer to the audience, removed her hat and frisbee'd it into the crowd: an auspicious sacrifice to start the night.

Mostly stage center under one of the Opry-esque arches, Crutchfield occasionally traversed the stage with one of her guitars, a Gibson J-45, as emerald lasers and speckled yellow lights swept the room, creating an energized intensity throughout the night. Slowing down to sit at the edge of the stage sans guitar during “Crimes of the Heart,” Crutchfield sang fervently in dim lighting, pain and grief displayed in winces and clutches to the chest.

On “Lone Star Lake,” a song highlighting the overwhelming experience of feeling lost and discovering the strength in persistence, acceptance and friendship, Crutchfield dedicated the performance to her friends in Good Morning.

Though the MIA status of “St. Cloud” in the setlist was disappointing for fans with a connection to the nearby town once considered cow country, Waxahatchee offered heartfelt emotion in her performance of "Tigers Blood," returning to the stage for an encore performance that began with Lucinda Williams’ “Drunken Angel” and ended on a burning note of desire for a deeper intimacy with “Fire.”