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

BuzzSugar — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:30:38 -0700

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 read more.

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