TresSugar

Rock-afire Explosion Is at It Again

GiggleSugar — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:00:00 PDT

Rock-afire Explosion is proving to be an enduring musical act. This creepy animatronic robot cover band, including a dog and a gorilla, originally played at Showbiz Pizza in the '80s. Their creators, Creative Engineering, now have a fan bidding contest where you can request to have your favorite song performed by them. Here's someone's winning bid: Arcade Fire's "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" lip synced by Rock-afire Explosion. Love it!

Monday Pick-Me-Up: The Rock-afire Explosion Movie

BuzzSugar — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:30:38 PDT

Did you grow up in a place with a Showbiz Pizza? I missed this phenomenon (mine was a Chuck-E-Cheese's kind of town), but my boyfriend was raised on Showbiz and its animatronic band, the Rock-afire Explosion. Made up of a singing gorilla, a bass-playing bear, and many other lovable if slightly creepy characters, the band would sing rock and country hits of the '80s and earlier (plus, of course, "Happy Birthday" to the many kids who celebrated there).

The restaurants have since closed, but the Rock-afire Explosion lives on - most notably on YouTube, where the band has been reprogrammed to sing such modern hits as Usher's "Love in this Club." And the phenomenon isn't going unnoticed: There's a Rock-afire documentary in the works, slated to be released this Fall.

The trailer for this movie just has to be seen to be believed; even at that, I'd think it was a mockumentary if I didn't know better (the guy who says, "It was like being in rock-and-roll. It was exactly like being in rock-and-roll" just seems so earnest!). To relive the magic if you were a Showbiz kid - or if you want to understand your Showbiz friends when they reminisce about Billy Bob the bear - just

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Rock-afire Explosion Wants to Make Love in This Club

GiggleSugar — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:00:00 PDT

Last week, I discovered this nightmare-inducing music vid of Showbiz Pizza's robotic house band, Rock-afire Explosion, singing "Smooth Criminal." The band recently made an Internet comeback, and their vids are now unavoidable. Check out their rendition of Usher's "Love in This Club." It's a little unsettling, but once you get over the fact that they're singing of a potential sexual conquest to children, it's pretty entertaining.

Rock-afire Explosion: How Is This Intended for Children?

GiggleSugar — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:00:00 PDT

Showbiz Pizza's in-house robotic band, Rock-afire Explosion, always creeped me out as a kid. I recently stumbled across a music vid the group released for their cover of "Smooth Criminal" and thought I'd give the group another chance to redeem themselves. Big mistake. There is some hard-core horror movie sh*t up in this vid. What the hell do they slip into that pizza sauce? You'd think the mention of "blood stains in the carpet" would automatically disqualify a song from their play list, but no...

Where Not To Host Your Kid's B-Day Party

GiggleSugar — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 14:00:00 PDT

Showbiz Pizza provides animatronic entertainment for kids in the form of The Rock-afire Explosion. When I was a kid, this robot band sang horrendous songs while looking slightly possessed and bobbing their heads unrhythmically. But the times, they are a changing...