It’s been a little over a month since Alabama-born twins Allison and Katie Crutchfield surprise-released their first album together since 2011, while simultaneously revealing their supergroup Snocaps.
The project reunited the sisters from their last group, P.S. Eliot, with the support of MJ Lenderman, known for his solo work and as part of the rock outfit Wednesday, along with Brad Cook, whose impressive production credits include Brandi Carlile, Bon Iver, Suki Waterhouse, and The Menzingers, among others.
The Crutchfield sisters are strong, introspective songwriters who channel poetic lyrics through their operatic voices. When paired with their creative musical instrumentation, they deliver visceral emotions like a dagger to the heart.
Katie’s country-tinged project, Waxahatchee, gained notoriety with her 2020 album “Saint Cloud,” on which Cook also contributed to production. Her 2024 album, “Tigers Blood,” earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Americana Album, her first nomination at the awards. Allison has also stayed busy, staying true to her DIY punk rock roots, performing with Swearin’, who disbanded but later reunited, and as a solo artist.
Witnessing the twins share the stage at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles on Dec. 4 for the first night of two was a delight from start to finish. In addition to performing the Snocaps self-tilted release in full, fans were treated to P.S. Eliot, Waxahatchee and Allison Crutchfield throwbacks.
Ahead of the show, Katie Crutchfield teased the mashup on her Substack, posting about the short six-night tour that Snocaps would embark on, featuring double stops in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. In her post, she said she wanted to give fans a chance to know what they would get if they attended any of the shows. She said that she and Allison were intentional about each opening act, venue and setlist.
She wrote that the tour would feature Allison Crutchfield’s music, P.S. Eliot hits, Waxahatchee songs from the first four albums, but not anything from the last five years and in press materials stated “Snocaps will play this handful of shows at the end of 2025 and then put the project on ice for the foreseeable future.”
“It’s beautiful to see it all coming to fruition, and it’s feeling really warm and fuzzy and nostalgic,” she wrote. “The old is feeling new, the songs I wrote when I was 19 that once cringed me out way too much to revisit are sounding fresh and sweet and good again. This project, in all its enmeshment and entanglement with family, friendship, and frequent collaboration, admittedly feels ripe for recurrence. We’ll see!”
After Slippers opened for the evening, Snocaps took the stage and immediately delved into their self-titled work with “Coast,” “Wasteland,” and “Brand New City,” one of the album’s pop gems full of jangly guitars and cheery vocals. There was something special and intimate about listening to the Crutchfield sisters perform this album live in its entirety, where the twins each penned almost an equal share of the songs: Allison wrote seven, and Katie took on six.
Allison wears her heart on her sleeve, one that appears to be wrinkled with grief in songs like “Heathcliff,” where a decaying relationship simmers enough smoke to signal its final days. Then there are songs like “You in Rehab,” which tackles the subject of addiction, something that Katie has spoken about overcoming in her own life, and a struggle that their youngest sister is working on overcoming. Listening to and watching Allison sing, “Can’t imagine you getting better/but I never give up/I watch myself split in two/One loves me/And the other loves you,” with Katie providing backup vocals, is a display of heartwrenching sibling camaraderie at its finest.
Katie’s songwriting has evolved so much since the early days of Waxahatchee, when lyrics were often anchored in self-inflicted harm, a theme that has since been replaced by a healing optimism, thanks in part to her sobriety.
This can also be heard in her last two albums, as well as in this new Snocaps chapter, with songs like “Angel Wings,” where she sings, “Opaque in my heart’s break/I leave space there for you to fill it.” Now that’s not to say that, Katie’s new sanguine nature is finite, she still experiences doubts and somberness which can be heard in “I Don’t Want To” where she sings, “Am I healing in the shade / This shadow’s with me everyday / It obscures everything I say / I’m pure of heart, this darkness ricochets / Run fast with no direction / I’ve spilled out heavy with no protection.”
There were some great moments in the performance, including hearing nostalgic P.S. Eliot tracks sprinkled throughout the setlist, such as “Shitty and Tragic” and “Incoherent Love Songs,” a song Katie said their prior iteration of the group hadn’t played live before. As promised, the performance also featured music from the sisters’ respective solo projects, including Waxahatchee’s “Silver” and “Coast to Coast,” as well as Swearin’s “Dust in the Gold Sack” and “Movie Star.”
The night’s encore, which Katie told the audience is different for each show, began with Waxahatchee’s “Brass Beam” and Allison’s “I Don’t Ever Want To Leave California,” a song she dedicated to Los Angeles. The final songs of the night featured P.S. Eliot’s “Tennessee” and “Like How You Are,” where MJ Lenderman jumped on guitar, and Allison filled in on drums.
Whether fans have been there since day one of the Ackleys, Katie and Allison Crutchfield’s first band at 15, or their feminist indie punk days of P.S. Eliot, or their solo careers, Snocaps is the latest chapter in the lives of the musicians that welcomes listeners to appreciate the present and take a gander through the past catalogues that inform it. Over the past 20 years, they’ve worked with different artists and producers, lived on opposite coasts, and persevered through difficult circumstances. Seeing them return to each other on stage, smiling and laughing together, might be a healing force found only in a home built by siblings.
Whether fans discovered the Crutchfield twins in their first teenage band, the Ackleys, followed their feminist indie-punk era in P.S. Eliot, or came to love their solo projects, Snocaps feels like the newest chapter in a story two decades in the making. Over the years, they’ve worked with different collaborators, lived on opposite coasts, and weathered their own difficult seasons. Watching them return to each other onstage, smiling and laughing, captures a rare ease that comes from years of growing up and growing apart, together.