Picture it: the year is 1983 and the family is in the mood for pizza and arcade games, so everyone hops in the Oldsmobile (or 70s-80s vehicle of your choice) to head on down to ShowBiz Pizza Place. As you enter the restaurant, a big stage can be seen with three stages covered by curtains, distracting everyone from the food and fun. All of a sudden the lights dim and the curtains rise, revealing the greatest animatronic band of all time – The Rock-afire Explosion!!! It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before, these human size animals led by a gorilla and a big brown bear playing everyone’s favorite classics and modern hits with comedy in between.
Sadly these are not my memories because my parents never took me to Showbiz but Da Count has fond memories of this childhood experience. Gregula showed me videos from YouTube of this band and they were just incredible! I wished I could see them live and he wished he could see them again. He never thought that he ever would until one day we found out the good folks at Volo Museum had acquired a full set of original Rock-afire Explosion animatronics and soon the band would play again 40 years later!
This event took place at noon on Sunday June 2, 2024. It was originally scheduled for the day before but it was postponed due to rain. We got there on time but we unfortunately missed out on the actual unveiling with Rock-afire Explosion creator Aaron Fechter (via Zoom) because of the huge line at the entrance to get tickets.
Once we finally got in, we passed through a neat gift shop that sells all kinds of vintage candy and retro and pop culture souvenirs to get to an outdoor space with a small green lawn in front of a large red three-door garage type building where the beloved Rock-afire Explosion was performing. It was really impressive, bringing a flood of old memories to many and joy to the younger fans whose parents introduced them to the band!
The show was lots of fun, the best part was the band bantering about 1980s pop culture as if it were today. Lots of great retro tunes including Elvis, The Beach Boys, The Monkees, groovy 70s and totally awesome 80s music. They even performed the Macarena, which was obviously not a part of their original shows but was added later on for private use.
We also saw one of our favorite YouTubers Jacob the Carpetbagger at Volo! Junior especially enjoyed meeting him. Check out his video because you might see some familiar faces there. 😉
The Rock-afire Explosion was so much fun and we can’t wait to go back next month for their upcoming Christmas in July show!
**FOUR FANGS UP**
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