You're listening to the Pinball Podcast's Location Feature Series. Hey everybody, this is Jessica, and with me today I have Rachel from Electric Bat Arcade. Hey Rachel, how's it going? Hey Jessica, it's going great. excellent lovely to hear your voice thank you you as well this is as close as i get to hanging out with friends right now so it feels really good we'll see each other to show in the near future i would love that especially now that shows are starting back up again um i'm hitting allentown um this month wow this is july now i've lost track of time um and then for sure texas next year what's your next show uh we're going to southern fried so we'll be there into august oh oh that's close enough for me to go to yeah you should you should totally go yeah we should totally go okay end of august i'm in i think it's august 20th is maybe this friday or saturday um so that's oh i like it that's a week before my birthday this sounds like good celebration times I think so. Perfect. All right. It's a date. So I appreciate you coming on to do this silly, weird little interview with me. I have not yet been to Electric Bat, and I need to rectify this like as soon as I possibly can. For people who haven't been there, what would you say is your favorite or most unique part of the arcade? the arcade is attached to uh an old dive bar punk venue so there are always shows going on nearly every night of the week um so you can really there's a lot to see there um my favorite part that doesn't have anything to do with the the actual venue though is that we have so many regulars that now it sort of feels like going to like a coffee shop in the 90s or whatever you will just always run into somebody that you know and like you can have like pickup games with just you know if I show up at six in the morning because we're open at six in the morning so there's like some third shifters like we've got we've got all different people that just get up early um yeah so so you can you will see people that you know which is good get along yeah i love that feel like the cheers vibe of yeah you walking in and everybody's excited to see you i also love that you're open in the morning to do breakfast is there a breakfast situation there is a breakfast situation the kitchen doesn't usually open until 10 a.m these days post-covid you know everything got a little screwy but i expect that that will um change shortly on the weekends we may be open for food at six to um night it by the time people hear this it could be different but we do have breakfast food i i love a uh a pinball brunch i love it it's one of my favorite things like if i can do that a killer breakfast and like some pint glass mimosas or something you know just like if i can slam through that and play some pinball i am a very happy lady we are that that place perfect all right i'll be there soon not too soon it's real real hot right now you want to you want to wait till september you want to avoid your trips you know any late june to end of august go somewhere else okay all right you'll enjoy it i'll get it on the calendar for like a fall winter outing absolutely perfect okay and anyone listening these are good tips for you as well if you like me uh are a wimp and hate the heat so we have a lot of people coming from milwaukee the last couple of weeks i'm not sure why or other parts of wisconsin and i always feel like man like you did this backwards right escape your winter to our winter that's how that's supposed to work right that's what happens in florida we have a lot of like michiganders yeah us to show up here yep um so it's a very snowbird heavy area where i am so i can relate yeah absolutely the odd ones out who are here all year round what is wrong with us i don't know okay I love I love that I love the vibe I love the feel so are you like fluid with the concert venue can people come in between like if somebody's there to see a show do they come over to play pinball if you're playing pinball can you kind of like listen to what's going on yes so it um there's just double doors that are open all of the time um between between the venue side and the arcade side so people definitely flow back and forth the arcade regulars have a little vip bat card so that they can bypass um cover charges for shows if they're just going to go play games um you know that's the honor system sort of thing and they're everybody's been really good about that so that way they can come and play whenever and there's most of the shows many of the shows don't have cover so it's just every once in a while that you don't have to worry about not being able to get into the arcade but yeah it's the having the various types of shows and i say various types it's we have both punk and and we do some you know metal stuff in that genre we don't you know there's not a lot of mazzy star style or light acoustics but we um yeah so there's there's a lot of a lot of different people that come in for those various genres and And it's fun to see all of that in the arcade. Gary Stern showed up randomly, or at least unannounced. He's a huge Ska fan, so that makes sense. You say that jokingly. There was a Ska show on that night. And maybe it was just because there hasn't been live music in so long. But it was, I don't know, maybe two months ago, whatever, recently. and he hung out and watched that loud show right up front like biggest smile on his face that's amazing like midnight it was so much fun to watch him watch them that's very that's very cool it's nice to have you know especially as people are like starting to get back out it nice to have multiple entertainment options in one place so instead instead of having to be like okay we going to go hang out and play some pinball or get some food and then go to the show you can literally do all of the things at the one spot. There are actually three different bars in our bar. So in the archery world, there's a tiki bar. It's a tiny little corner tiki bar. And it's... We specialize in horror tiki. Horror tiki. Not horror tiki, but That's my specialty, yes. You will love it. And then where the venue is, where the stage is, is more like just that's the original part of the building that opened in 1974. So that's kind of got that, that's the dive part. And then through another door, you go into like a cocktail lounge that has more fancy liquors. and sometimes there's DJs in there, but it's a different vibe. Okay, you can find me at the Tiki Bar, even like a Tiki breakfast cocktail. I'm into that too. I can hit a lot of my sweet spots there. I'm enjoying this already. Okay, so we've set the scene now. What would you say is the most underrated game at Electric Bat? And why do you think people should give it a chance? I think it's probably Hot Doggin it's either Hot Doggin or Knight Rider okay Hot Doggin is like one of my favorite games so people that haven't played it, Super Wide Body it's about skiing it's a classic skiing game but I if you if you shoot the ball up into the rollover lanes the middle rollover lane is a k it spells ski that lights a kickback on the far right side um not like an outlaying kickback like mid play field that can give you some bonus there's a bunch of it's just like a it's a weird game but not weird in a way that it's unpleasant to play I think people have a hard time with it because it can be brutal, but it isn't if you play it a lot and get a feel for it, it's rarely brutal. I think Knight Rider is probably the same thing. Like you just, another classic Bally, if you have, it can be mean. Yeah. I feel like Hot Dog and 2. That's why you get five balls on that ball. Oh, yeah. Hot Dog and you don't. You get three because you should really be able to do it in three. Well, Hot Dog and two I feel like is so different looking in terms of layout and mechanics that some people who aren't as familiar with some weird wide body layouts can walk up to it and be like, hmm. You're 19 inlanes. Yeah, there's a lot here. And it feels a little less approachable. but I love a good wide body and I love a weird geometry on a game. So I'm a fan for sure. Okay. So if there was any game that exists or doesn't exist that you could have at the arcade that you haven't had there yet, what would you have? That exists or doesn't exist? Yeah. Oh, on the exist list. I like that's a thing now. Yeah. Yeah. I've never had a Viking. I would like to have a Viking real, real bad. In line drop targets forever. Yeah. Yeah. I love, I love that game. Games that don't exist. Hmm. maybe like an Eon Flux or something like oh MTV graphics Eon Flux I think that would be cool you could do some you know like shadow weird magnet jumpy around things I think you could do a lot with that theme and 25 people would love it yes I worked at MTV in the late 90s you're kidding no um so i would find random stuff in closets like they made an eon flux like a comic book that i found i have all this right ah yes and i'm like i didn't know this was a thing it's just like here's this weird thing i find at work um yeah but that's very flashbacky for me i like it what did you do at mtv i worked for their news radio division um so i wrangled artists and then clipped interviews and package them to send them to radio stations in like small towns to make it sound like they had interviewed a famous artist even though they did oh sneaky i like it yeah my first day i walked in and they're like okay we need you to go get little kim out of the bathroom no shit yeah so that's my first job let's get little kim out of the bathroom it was fun i met slash and alice cooper like i got to meet really rad humans doing this weird niche job that i didn't know existed that sounds fantastic it was pretty good okay this is not this isn't about me this is about your dream eon flux game that i think would be really cool graphically too to have uh i'm into it. When you are not working, which I know is all the time, you get a rare time to go perhaps play pinball elsewhere. Where is your favorite place that you've gone to play that is not your own place? Well, when I used to do the show circuit pretty heavily and I got a chance to travel to, you know, basically everywhere that there's a pinball show. My favorite one was Next Level. up in Hillsborough, Oregon. Yes. Yes. I love that place. Me too. I love it. I like, I mean, not only do they have just, you know, every game. Ever. Fred's collections of collections. Every lunchbox that's ever been made. Every, like, just He-Man that's ever been made. it's just an 70s and 80s memorabilia um over over stimulation um that's so great you could lose yourself there and i did often i used to go there once or twice a week and so i haven't been since they expanded i was there you know like i saw the empty spot where it was going to be. So I am anxious to get back there. Yeah I want to go back there Locally there are some cool I like playing pinball at places that are having tournaments that I am not running That is fun So there's a place about 15 miles from us called Level One. They're really cool. Some friends of mine own that. There's another one called Starfighters, which they're an entrance fee free play arcade, and they have lots of great games. And then there's a newer place that's in a brewery not too far from us also called Danger Zone. And he buys the LEs of everything and one-off arcade games, just weird, like homebrew style stuff. So that's a cool place to play some games that aren't usually on location. Nice. I like that. We're all friends. We're all helping each other. Community, not competition. Yes, for sure. That's the way to grow it. What is your favorite song? The song that you will never get tired of hearing? Probably for nostalgia reasons. Temple of Love by Sisters of Mercy. Yes, Sisters of Mercy. This is how I get to find out all of the things that I have in common with people that I didn't know about before. Because I was just this morning rocking some Dominion. No! Yes, ma'am. I love this choice. Super nostalgic. That's good stuff. Alright, I can get with that. All right. We're just going down. We're going down a list of things that people hate to try and choose one of. So favorite beverage. Right now, Thai tea with boba. Some lime. I don't. I've never put lime in Thai tea. I will do that next time. okay i like it i i uh don't do a ton of boba drinks but the Thai tea is always really nice okay i like i like the way that they like shoot through the straw i saw an ad for and i was gonna buy it even though i don't drink a lot of it because i thought it was great you know how they have like metal straws that you can take around now They have a reusable boba straw. Yes. Oh. Yeah. I was like, that's a weapon in some places. I also like those aloe drinks that have the chunks in them. Yes. I'm not sure. I never used to like the drinks with food, and then that seems kind of gross. I remember when there was Orbitz and all those other weird drinks. How was that suspended? like what that could not have been something that was good to put in your body no maybe yeah no yeah and what were the balls mystery balls mystery balls yeah that was i had a bottle of it that i kept yeah i kept it like on my windowsill because i'm like i'm never gonna drink it but it looks rad yeah it's one of those things everyone will buy at least once yeah and maybe try that's and That's why it lasted for the short amount of time that it lasted. Everyone's got theirs. Okay. We can close up shop now. We're done now. Just sit it next to your bottle of Zima and we're fine. Okay. So if I'm coming to hang out there and play some games aside from your place, what's your favorite local restaurant? I have a favorite local restaurant and a favorite local bar. I will give you them both because they're very, they're different. Okay. One of them is called the White Rabbit Bar, which is in Gilbert, Arizona, which is outskirts of Phoenix. And it is a speakeasy apothecary. The cocktails are incredible, like out-of-this-world cocktails. But it's one of those places that you have to know a password. And I know as I'm describing that, I can visualize people's faces as they hear me talking about this bougie, trendy, like, okay, thanks, Rachel, pass. But this one, just trust me, this one is different from the other ones. And it feels very, like the people that are there are really into it and care about it. And all the apothecary stuff is neat and the cocktails are out of this world. So this one is one that you should go to. You can get the password by, you know, if you go on their website, it tells you how to get the password. Okay. The restaurant is Parler, which is a pizza joint pretty close to my house in Phoenix that they do, you know, wood fire pizza. They have kind of standard flavors, but it's all really good ingredients. There are places similar to this all over. but this one I think this is my favorite wood fired pizza place but in addition they have great sandwiches, everything that they have is really good, made with good stuff and they have interesting rotating market you know, have this weird pizza or this weird soup they're good and they have great desserts and they also have good cocktails nice, I love it I'm into it, I love a good pizza favorite action movie? Blade Runner. Would also potentially be a fun pinball theme. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, maybe Eon Flux, Blade Runner, side by side. Spooky, you can make another duo machine. Let's do these two. I had a moment when Halloween got announced and then I was immediately informed. And my partner was like, Spooky just released another machine. And in my head, I got insanely excited for no reason because it wasn't real. But in my head, I had already put together a narrative of they've got all the John Carpenter licensing. They made a big trouble in Little China Machine. And that was not true. I just got chills. Just when you said that. But in my head, I was like, this is the greatest day ever. And I was like, no, of course, that's not actually what happened. But I was living in a, you know, real waking dream moment for a second there before I was snapped out. That would have been a hard choice for me. We, we went, we got Halloween. Congratulations. I do know some people. Oh, thanks. I do know some people that, I know two separate people that got one of each. Oh, wow. I'm sure there are more than that, but these are two people that I have talked to. Wow. Well, you and I balance each other because I got Ultraman. Oh, awesome. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited to play Ultraman. I mean but at the electric bat it may I mean Halloween is what makes sense to be there That right up our alley So I come play your Halloween and you can come play my Ultraman Deal. Great. Perfect. Okay. Now, people may know or may not know that you are an absolutely jaw-dropping artist outside of the realm of anything else. Like when I first saw your work, I was just like, I can't like, I couldn't conceive of how something like this even comes to be. But you, your painting is so beautiful and like so evocative and has so many like layers and it's so dark. So it's wonderful. So everyone look up Rachel's artwork, please. I'll put links in all of the show notes and stuff. But who is your favorite visual artist? It doesn't have to be a pinball-based kind of thing. Even though this is a pinball podcast, I don't necessarily want to talk about pinball all the time. But who is not necessarily someone who inspires you, but someone who's your favorite to kind of get into their work. Somebody that I go back to a lot is a guy named Christian Rex Van Minen. You can look him up on Instagram or wherever else. He makes stuff that is both insanely realistic, but also just real messed up and kind of just textures. There's all kinds of beautiful, realistic hair textures crossed with like tattooed skin and gummies, like gummy bear kind of. It's just there's a lot to see there. Okay. And they tend to be all amalgamated into lumps of things that are somewhat figurative. So it may look like a portrait of somebody, but there won't be like a face there. Or there may just be sort of this like bumpy flesh thing that may have like some eyes sort of tattooed on. I'm not describing it in a way that does it justice. But I think that he's got a wonderful talent for texture and stuff that looks just real, real interesting. Yeah, I had to look while you're describing it because I'm just like, I need to get some kind of visual to go along with this. And your description is actually really good for this, even though it sounds very odd. You guys just have to check this out for yourself because, wow, like I've never seen anything particularly the style before. Yeah. Christian Rex Van Minen. M-I-N-N-E-N, I believe. Yeah. Yeah. That's some trippy stuff. I like that. There's a whole mushroom phallus thing happening here that I really enjoy. I believe that I mean not that you enjoy it which I also believe but I mean that he's doing it yes all the way around awesome that's another great recommendation alright more things for you guys to look up please that's really cool like so so different kind of stuff this is fun I like this alright you can find me at at RachelBestArt that's all my internet things on on the social things thank you um all right if you are uh if you have some time off you got a little time on your hands you're taking a trip what is what is your favorite road trip destination where are you going my favorite road trip was from south carolina to New Orleans on our way from moving Kale, my husband, out to Phoenix with me. So that, from South Carolina to New Orleans, incredible. Got to see all kinds of stuff. New Orleans, one of the greatest cities in the world. But then like the rest of the way, like the, all that never ending time through Texas and that part. So the reverse, the Arizona to New Orleans would not nearly be as fun. I would want the East Coast version of that trip again. Yeah, so that's what I would do. That's fair. I will wave the magic road trip wand and make that happen. Done. All right. I've saved a very serious question for the end. This is extremely important. So we're serious faces now. Rachel. Serious face. how many pinballs can you fit into a 1953 dodge and bumper car that has the little like low spot where you get in so you're really limited by like how you can stack them um let's see i have a case of pinballs right here that is 175 so I I'm going to say 7000 that's perfect 7000 an even 7000 I like it yeah excellent thank you for doing this very silly little interview segment with me it's been really enjoyable hearing some more about you and about the arcade if people are interested in visiting electric bat arcade and you should be they're located at 29 west southern avenue in tempe arizona the website is electricbatarcade.com they're on all the socials at electric bat arcade they're open 6 a.m to 2 a.m which is amazing 365 days a year it's all coin drop which we love long live quarters and tokens and all the fun things that are tactile and prices for games go between 25 cents and a dollar per game are there any other things that you would like to plug or information you would like to share that maybe i missed um we also have a second location up in flagstaff arizona so that is up at between seven and eight thousand feet it's much much cooler if you're here in the summer it is uh the address on that is 15 north wc riles drive um it's just right off route 66 on your way to the grand canyon um so check that out as well i like the commercial like right off route 66 open open open our low low game prices that's fantastic rachel thank you so much it's been a joy to speak to you and I can't wait to see you at Southern Fried because that's going to happen now. Yes, I'm excited. I can't wait to see you. Six weeks. Six weeks. I love it. Thanks, Rachel. Alrighty. Alright, bye. Bye.