Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee performs at NPR Music's 2013 SXSW Showcase at Stubb's.

Playing her first set at SXSW for the NPR Music showcase in Austin, Texas, Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield amped up her fragile songs as the head of a killer power trio. Watch video of Waxahatchee's complete performance.

If Katie Crutchfield ever becomes a solo star, it's hard to imagine how the Waxahatchee singer's most bruised and beautiful songs will translate to a gigantic stage. Tucked into a back room at Stubb's during SXSW on March 13 — and following in the immediate aftermath of Nick Cave's swaggering turn under the stars — Crutchfield opened her 25-minute set with a string of fragile solo songs, each more delicate than the last. This was interior music, made of guts and nerves and other viscera we don't share easily.

But then, about a third of the way through, Crutchfield showed another side: She took her odes to nervous doubt and lonely ambivalence and amped them up as the head of a killer power trio. It makes sense that Crutchfield would want to showcase both halves of her personality, given the solo-to-full-band transformation that occurred between last year's debut, American Weekend, and Waxahatchee's fine new album, Cerulean Salt. What's remarkable is the way each side — vulnerability and forcefulness — enhances the other, to moving and cathartic effect.

Set List

• "Noccalula"
• "Tangled Envisioning"
• "Coast To Coast"
• "Peace And Quiet"
• "Be Good"
• "Lively"
• "Waiting"
• "Brother Bryan"
• "American Weekend"

Credits

Producers: Mito Habe-Evans, Robin Hilton, Amy Schriefer; Technical Director: Kevin Wait; Event Coordinator: Saidah Blount; Assistant Producer: Denise DeBelius; Videographers: Christopher Farber, Katie Hayes Luke, A.J. Wilhelm; Audio Engineering by Metro Mobile; Production Assistants: Gabriella Garcia-Pardo, Ryan Smith; Special Thanks to: Stubb's and South By Southwest; Executive Producers: Anya Grundmann, Keith Jenkins.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

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