I don't know about you guys, but I attended many-a-birthday party at Showbiz Pizza Place in my pre-teen years. Remember the animatronic robot band The Rock-afire Explosion that used to rock the house with somewhat dated pop songs and revivals of the Happy Birthday song every few minutes?
Apparently there's a small community of people who are buying up the old machines on eBay and reprogramming the band with new songs. Aaron Fechter and his partner Chris have a YouTube channel with a bunch of examples. They also take requests via bids. The whole thing is mildly unsettling, strangely hypnotic, and somewhat creepy in an after-school special kinda way.
(via Kent Nichols)
Pete said:
Dude! You're the first person I've seen or heard come out with the Showbiz reference. Way to come thru! I've been trying to tell friends that pre-Chuck E. Cheese, we got our Showbiz on and I get blank stares and ???.
I was always more interested in the video games than the animatronics, but I always thought the Gorilla at the keyboard rocked. Aaron and Chris do a great job with the reprogramming.
Matt Doman said:
YES! YES! YES!
Thank you! This is where I grew up. It was Showbiz all the way. I never recovered once it switched to Chuck-E-Cheese. I used to have a Rock-a-fire album on vinyl back in the day. Along with my Rafi album it was one of two that I kept in heavy rotation. They covered the Doors "Light My Fire." Billy Bob was my hero. I wanted one of those wooden box guitars so bad! Thanks for the memories, and it's great to know that their still alive and jamming!
