Perfume Genius sang under a purple cross. It was one of the most powerful moments of SXSW

Hrishikesh Hirway, host of the popular podcast and Netflix series "Song Exploder," on Wednesday presented a showcase at Central Presbyterian Church during South by Southwest Music Festival. The diverse roster for the evening featured art-rock performer Perfume Genius, singer-songwriter Kimbra, rapper Fly Anakin, rocker Sarah Kinsley and singer-songwriter Jenny Owen Youngs.

Here are a few takeaways from the show.

No one promised us a podcast. 

Fans of Hirway love the way he works with an artist to deconstruct favorite songs and help fans to see those tunes in a new light. For this show, his primary role was host and curator. Each artist played a set, and then Hirway came on to do a quick conversation before their final track. This structure worked just fine, but would the audience have welcomed a little more song exploding? Probably. 

Kimbra proved that vulnerability is an artist's greatest strength. 

At the top of her set, the singer-songwriter from New Zealand admitted that she was used to playing with a band these days. Facing an audience alone to play a stripped-down set in such an intimate setting filled her with fear, she said. Then, looping her vocals and spinning harmonies through the sanctuary, she delivered a sublime performance.

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Hirway remarked on how powerful it is to see someone express self-doubt like that "and then kill it." It's possible to be scared and find your power, he said.

Making an audience understand their deepest hopes, fears and loves is inherently risky for artists, but by opening themselves, they forge profound human connections with strangers. 

Perfume Genius under a purple cross was a powerful visual metaphor.

The king of queer pop music sings with his body and his soul. He lets song seize him, shake him, drop him to the ground. Is a house of worship — a place you go to lay your troubles down and get lifted — the best place to see an artist who can make a synthesizer swell feel like a spiritual experience? After s spectacular church set on Wednesday from Perfume Genius, aka Mike Hadreas, it seems very possible.  

Standing under vibey golden light, Hadreas led a six-piece ensemble through a cinematic journey on "Wreath," a song about reckoning with a body that might betray you. 

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Hadreas has been open about his battle with Crohn's disease. He's also been candid about his struggle to find a spiritual center as a queer person in America. 

"Hymns have always sounded like sung spells to me. I never felt included in the magic of the God songs I heard growing up — I knew I was going to hell before anyone ever told me that I was," Hadreas told NPR in 2017.

He said the song "Otherside" is "a collection of little prayers" that he finds helpful. When he recorded the song, he said, he set up the studio like a church.  

The lights in the sanctuary shifted from red to pink to a cool lavender glow as the solo piano line ushered in the song at SXSW. As it built to a rafter-rattling climax, the symbolism of one of the leading voices in queer music creating space for his own spiritual healing under a purple cross in the state of Texas was not lost on anyone.

Throughout his set, Hadreas didn't engage in a lot of banter, opting to let his music beckon the audience to join him in spiritual release. Multiple times throughout the set, he left the stage to perform down the aisle.

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Before his final song, "Queen," Hirway asked Hadreas if he set out to create an anthem. 

The artist who had just spent 40 minutes earning the title genius said it doesn't work like that. 

"I always write songs that I want to hear," he said, adding that he hopes that writing the songs that move him will move others. 

For the capacity crowd that packed into the church on Wednesday, that mission was clearly accomplished.