Rock--afire Explosion

In the 80's, a pizza chain called Show Biz Pizza Place started opening around the country. Central to the establishment was a sophisticated animatronics show featuring a band: The Rock-afire Explosion. The band consisted of a gorilla on keyboards, a dog wearing a space suit on drums, a bear playing bass, and other inexplicable animal characters playing instruments. If this sounds exactly like Chuck E. Cheese it's because Show Biz was in direct competition with Chuck E. for the kid-entertainment pizza place market. In fact, Show Biz would eventually buy out Chuck E. and run both the franchises well into the 90's when everything folded into the Chuck E. Cheese brand.

All the Rock-afire Explosion animatronics were eventually replaced with Chuck E. Cheese characters, leaving only a handful of shows working at other independent locations (Billy Bob's Super Wonderland, Fun Station USA.) Having the access to a working show and the programming know how, ex Creative Engineering Inc. programmer/designer Aaron Fechter began auctioning off songs on the internet for people to bid on, and then he would program and video tape the show. You can bid here. There is also a documentary you can check out here. Below is the video to Arcade Fire's Neighborhood #1.