I played around more with this.
The skin (or lack thereof) doesn't seem to matter for the player to hang. I played around more with it and found the following situations where it will hang:
1. seeking while playing with
alsa.c:397 alsa_flush(): Seek requested; discarding buffer.
2. when stopping while the player still plays with
xspf.c:316 xspf_playlist_save(): filename='/home/strcmp/.config/audacious/playlist.xspf', pos=0
alsa.c:282 alsa_close_audio(): Closing audio.
3. double-clicking on another track
It won't freeze if
1. I close the player while paused
2. I seek while paused (and then continue playing)
3. I change the track while paused
It will freeze with 'continue playback at startup' if
1. I play a song, then stop it
It won't freeze with 'continue playback at startup' if
1. I play a song, then pause it, then resume playing
2. I play a song, then pause it, then stop it while paused
There are probably half a dozen more situations where it will hang or not depending on the situation and configuration.
AUD-147 sounds similar to this