After more than 20 years away, Giants Chair is back! The seminal Kansas City post-hardcore band, which went on an indefinite hiatus in 1997, didn’t just come back for some reunion shows: They wrote a brand new album. Giants Chair will release its loooooooong-awaited third record, Prefabylon, on December 6. Just because the band wasn’t active since the Clinton administration doesn’t mean members weren’t keeping busy with other projects in the meantime.
Before Giants Chair took the stage at Cactus Club for its first Milwaukee show since the ’90s, singer and guitarist Scott Hobart invited My First Band host Tyler Maas into the band’s RV to discuss the long and winding path to Prefabylon and everything that came before. There, they talked about Giants Chair’s brief stint as a Green Bay band before they made their mark in KC and influenced Midwestern acts for years to come.
Hobart went on to talk about growing up in a musical family in rural Missouri, waiting for his moment to be pulled on stage to play guitar with U2 as a kid, joining bands in high school and college, honoring his father’s memory with a country band called Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys after Giants Chair ended, and much more.
My First Band is sponsored by Boulevard Brewing. The show is edited by Jared Blohm. You can listen to My First Band on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and wherever else you get podcasts. Music used in this show comes courtesy of Devils Teeth (“The Junction Street Eight Tigers”) and Giants Chair (“Dirty Winter”).