Third wave ska band formed in October 1995 in Allston, Massachusetts, USA.
Their first release was on their own Fork in Hand Records label, but have since teamed with Springman Records and SideOneDummy. The band has been noted for its strict DIY work ethic, such as engineering, producing, and releasing their own albums and videos and self-promotion of their own shows.
In 2000 the band recorded a gangsta rap album, Porch Life, and distributed it unofficially via cassette tape. In 2003 the album was officially released on CD through Fork in Hand. They have also recorded splits with Melt-Banana, Brain Failure, and Drexel.
Big D and the Kids Table have played 200 shows a year, on average,[in support of bands including The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Dropkick Murphys, Rancid, and Alexisonfire, and have become regular performers on the Warped Tour. The band has also performed in the Summer of Ska Tour 2006 and the Ska Is Dead tour.
In the fall and winter of 2007 the band embarked on their first-ever large scale headlining tour, The Steady Riot Tour, named after the 2007 release.
Different stories exist about the band name's origin, especially about running over pets named Big D. However, lead singer Dave McWane has said that the band actually got their name when a friend, Conor Donnelly, told him that if he ever started a band he should call it Big D and the Kids Table, so he did.