Kiss the Tiger at Icehouse (Sep 11, 2025)

Kiss the Tiger Setlist

We Don’t Fight Anymore
Anthony
Out of My Mind
There You Are (Beautiful)
Dinosaur Song
Crawl Inside (Live Debut)
It’s Not Over
I Wanna Love Ya
Motel Room
See More
Big Booty Scooty
Carry Me to Bed (Live debut)
Hold On To Love
Every Little Piece of Me
Infinite Love
It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City (Bruce Springsteen cover)
Elliot Park
Bully

— Encore —
The Night Is Killing You

The most beautiful season in Minnesota continued to treat its residents well. Over at the Icehouse in Minneapolis, it was an album release show from local artist Kiss the Tiger.

PaviElle (full name PaviElle French) opened the show. A composer and neo-soul vocalist, she released the album Fear Not in 2014 and Sovereign: Aligned, the latest in a connected series of artistic (film & music) recorded in February 2025 and making a live debut. The quintet (three vocalists, guitar, and bass) were performing a bit of experimental music, but that soul sound came through with PaviElle’s strong vocals and the dual supporting singers. As she spoke through the music’s creative background, the guitar and bass kept playing, creating a real sense of performance. PaviElle really showed off her range and singing skills on the second song and really started to get the audience’s attention. I loved that she was armed with a camera (I noted that before the show and she laughed, saying, “I have to document!”). In addition to singing, PaviElle had also created some backing tracks for some of the numbers, and set one up on the laptop, layering some beats and additional music with the rest of the band.

Some impressive scat style singing on Don’t Stop had the audience cheering and the band kept things moving along. Saying “it’s so much fun to hear this live, just like you”, it was a delight to see the joy in the performance. Queuing up the next track, PaviElle noted that she has composed symphonies, and described the next song as “my attempt at a waltz with a Caribbean feel”, with the recorded track featuring strings supporting the band. It was an extremely complex sound that didn’t sound complicated. With a “forgive me if I go to church here”, PaviElle took her time on the introduction to the next song with a long vocal section before the rest of the band nearly dropped out for her to quietly sing a terrific little number. Sacrifice had a funky sound from guitar and bass and a bit of a free form structure with vocal improvisation. Abandoning the supporting track on a late number, PaviElle left the stage, handing off the last number to her cousin to highlight his work as a musician as well. Getting guitar and harmonica, 2PM was a bit more of a folk singer feel and a nice coda to the opening set.

Kiss the Tiger came to the stage in support of their new album, Infinite Love, coming out four years after their stellar album Vicious Kid. Indie rock with past music having a bit of a lean towards Americana, the band appeared as a sextet (vocals, keyboards/backing vocals, guitar/backing vocals, guitar, bass, and drums). Lead singer Meghan Kreidler welcomed the audience with a “let’s have some fun”. The opener We Don’t Fight Anymore was a banger and set the tone for the evening. This was an aggressive, upbeat rock & roll and let Kreidler move around the front of the stage with high energy. Out of My Mind had a bit of a Latin undertone and the harmonies of the two singers was superb. Kreidler is a very emotive performer and the audience latched onto that quickly and amplified it right back to the band.

There You Are (Beautiful) had some time signature changes at the chorus, with a major slow down that was pretty impactful and closed out with good guitar and bass work. A saxophonist appeared on stage for the thumping Dinosaur Song and that long instrumental section was off the charts. The brief banter had Kreidler mention they were headed out for a few weeks on tour, “but I know this is going to be the best show, so thanks”. A live debut of Crawl Inside was a slower tempo number, but still had a lot of energy in both vocals and music. The addition of that second singer was a big plus sonically, and the new depth from Kiss the Tiger was pretty amazing. Even older songs like Motel Room had a new resonance, and with the audience roaring the hey’s, the band was all smiles and reveling in the moment.

Carry Me to Bed was another song off the new album, with some sharp guitar riffs and soaring dual vocals. Finishing the main set on the title track, Infinite Love had the strongest bass work of the evening. While the printed set list suggested the remaining songs were the encore, Kiss the Tiger didn’t bother to leave the stage and instead went straight into a Bruce Springsteen cover of It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City. A few more songs and they finally did leave the stage to quickly jump back on for a last song after band introductions. This Night Is Killing You was an excellent closer and Kiss the Tiger had blown the doors off of Icehouse and are sure to put on an excellent tour as they head out of town.