From a Minneapolis coffee shop on a Wednesday afternoon, lead singer of Kiss the Tiger Meghan Kreidler is itching to get the day going. Later that night, she’ll be onstage for the second of four Stone Baby shows throughout the month of March at Icehouse.

Stone Baby is a thematic performance that weaves in story with the band’s catalog of songs. Part musical and part mythological tale, the show centers around a girl born of stone and set for rock stardom, with Kreidler as the titular character and narrator.

Stone Baby came from an idea that Kiss the Tiger co-founder and rhythm guitarist Michael Anderson concocted to perform during a 20-minute livestream for the Festival of the Valkyries (hosted by the Valkyrie Music Collective) in May of 2020. The band leaned away from other streaming performances thereafter, and focused instead on adapting the short story into something more immersive with a live audience.

It seems as if the band hasn’t slowed down even with a pandemic. They released their third album, Vicious Kid, in 2021 and have opened for many well-known artists such as the Hold Steady, Lake Street Dive, Bad Bad Hats, Low Cut Connie, the Suburbs, Ike Reilly, Jackie Venson, Black Joe Lewis, and Emily Wolfe.

Despite their recent successes, Kreidler still feels the uncertainty and shaky ground of being a freelance artist. The singer says, “We've done some really awesome stuff, but there's just so many unknowns. When things are going really well, it’s really awesome, but when nothing is happening, it's really easy to get discouraged and, and it can be hard to focus on the good things. Whenever I get really stressed, Michael's like, ‘No matter what, like, we are going to do this because we can make stuff happen.’”

The band started when Anderson invited Kreidler to an experimental jam session to find her voice, so to speak, in a group of white men. Kreidler’s background in theater brought them new energy, and over the years, the band has evolved in their sound and aesthetic together. It wasn’t until a show at the Triple Rock a few years ago that Kreidler says she found the high-energy “Meghan Kreidler” that would take over when she was onstage.

“My stage persona is essentially an exaggeration of my real-life self,” she says. “It feels way more close to me than some things I do in theater arts. So when we started out, it just, it felt more vulnerable, and I actually felt a little lost. That night they had the stage blocked off, so we set up right in front of the bar on the floor. It made it a lot easier to connect with people. For some reason, there was just a moment where I'm like, ‘Oh, this, this makes sense; I get why I'm doing this,’ because there's so much self-consciousness that can come with any type of performing. When you become comfortable and confident with what you're doing, then you're really giving it to people, that's where the joy and freedom comes from.”

By Wednesday evening’s show at Icehouse, Kreidler as Stone Baby was at times as mercurial as Freddy Mercury as she danced around in her self-imposed five-by-five-foot section of the stage between Anderson, Bridger Fruth, Paul DeLong, and Jay DeHut at Icehouse.

Each chapter of the Stone Baby story began with a song. As the tale’s fictional band formed, she held up a newspaper with the words “DO YOU WANT TO BE IN A BAND?” written on it in bold marker. Stone Baby’s band is seen as a five-headed monster, with in-fighting amongst the members — especially between the fabricated half brothers Tommy and Shawny. The monster is joined together by their metaphorical “umbilical” cords — or should I say chords — represented by each one’s mic and instrumental cables. 

During “Preacher,” from the band’s 2016 self-titled debut, Kreidler channeled an evangelist in movement and convincing everyone to join in the cult of Stone Baby. Eventually, the story cracked open and showed what can happen when the pressure of always being “on” filtered in. As she wailed and writhed, Kreidler sang of discomfort and suffering of the human condition during “Out of My Mind” and “Mama.”

Kiss the Tiger’s trajectory perhaps mirrors Stone Baby’s in a perverse parallel universe. The difference: Kreidler is learning to find balance in her life. Tonight she is lighting the stage on fire, but tomorrow she’ll be doing band taxes with an accountant.

Earlier in the day, Kreidler had shared, "At last week’s show, I was greeting people and trying to make them feel welcome, but I realized, ‘Okay, I gotta save my voice and not give away all of my energy before I play.’ It’s striking a balance, and I realize why some artists don’t like to do meet-and-greets. I used to do everything — merch, social media, — but I realized it was draining to try and do everything.”

The performance closed with “I’m in Love” and “Elliot Park” thereafter, but the tale left Stone Baby’s fate open-ended. Did they make it? Did they go on to sell out stadiums? It remains to be seen how life could imitate art as we follow Kiss the Tiger’s true-to-life path, but it has been a compelling story so far.

Stone Baby continues at Icehouse in Minneapolis on Wednesday, March 23, and Wednesday, March 30.