Athens Legends Come to Life in Weirdo: The Story of Five Eight

Few concerts during my college years in Athens, Ga.—soaking up the local music scene and eventually contributing to it with my own band—had as big an impact on me as seeing Five Eight at the 40 Watt in 1992. Three-fourths of the band pogoed with their guitars, always on the verge of veering out of control, while the one actually nicknamed Tigger sat behind the drum kit, holding it all together. Frontman Mike Mantione was an emotional force, singing about the pain of losing his mind while the audience reveled in collectively losing theirs. With all the brands breaking big out of Athens, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Five Eight was next in line.

But most bands don’t become household names, and whether through bad luck, bad labels or self-sabotage, stardom never really came calling for Mantione, bassist Dan Horowitz, guitarist Sean Dunn and drummer Patrick Ferguson. But they achieved something maybe rarer—a longevity that continues and friendships that remain. Dunn and Ferguson left the band for a time, the latter temporarily replaced by Mike Rizzi, but they’re still making music together.

Last weekend, all four members plus Rizzi were at the Plaza Theater in Atlanta to celebrate the release of a new documentary on the band, Weirdo: The Story of Five Eight, a nine-year long project from director Marc Pilvinsky.

“I was looking for a fun side project and this one just bloomed to life effortlessly—at the beginning of the project, anyway,” Pilvinsky says of the film’s origins. “In 2015 I helped the band put together a short 20-minute documentary about one of their records being remixed/remastered and I was really taken by how emotionally open these guys were when I interviewed them. …But they had matured a lot over the years—as did I, I think—and there was a real depth to their answers about how and why things went wrong for them over the years. But their gratitude that they still get to play together all these years later, writing great songs, making great records and blowing people away in small clubs was what hit me hardest. They’re lucky to be alive and I think if they had the opportunity to trade early 1990s mega-success for their current lives, they wouldn’t change a thing. That’s a really healthy place to end up, and this is not a band that was usually in a healthy place by any measure.”

Full of the band’s stellar songs, along with original visuals and an emotional throughline, the movie follows their origins in the wake of Mantione’s nervous breakdown in college during the ’80s—a time when he believed he was the literal anti-Christ. He began writing songs about his own mental health as a way to stay sane. The band’s live shows were explosive, always on the edge of disaster except when they went over that edge. That instability took a toll on all of its members, but the love they shared of the music they made together was powerful.

“These guys made the importance of art really clear to me,” Pilvinksy continues. “The idea that art is a way to navigate the universe—as Dan says in the movie—or the way art conjures empathy in us all and connects us to our fellow humans; that is incredibly important. I think many of us learned about that during the pandemic as we binged TV and movies and maybe kept our sanity because of The Good Place or Gilmore Girls or Ted Lasso. Steven Soderbergh said, ‘I think this world would be unlivable without art,’ and I agree. It’s not a way to kill time, it’s a way to share your experience with others and a way to feel less alone.”

Other Georgia musicians like R.E.M.‘s Bill Berry, Indigo Girls’ Amy Ray and Drive-by Truckers’ Patterson Hood talk about how Five Eight impacted them, and as you watch the band mature on screen, you see them rewarded for years of effort with a stint on R.E.M.’s 2004 tour.

The band played a short acoustic set following the screening and will continue to tour with the film before it’s planned 2025 digital release. You can catch Weirdo: The Story of Five Eight and/or performances by the band in the following cities, including tonight in Athens, Ga.:

December 20,2024: Flicker Bar, Athens, GA.
7:30 p.m. screening & Q&A
10 p.m. Five Eight rock show

January 10, 2025: Woodlawn Theatre, Birmingham, AL
7:30 p.m. screening & Q&A
10 p.m. Five Eight rock show

January 11, 2025: The Boneyard, Chattanooga, TN
7:30 p.m. screening & Q&A
10 p.m. Five Eight rock show

February 14, 2025: The Garden Room at Wild Heaven West End, Atlanta
8:00 p.m. screening & Q&A
10 p.m. Five Eight rock show

February 15, 2025: Hippodrome, Gainesville, FL
4:00 p.m. screening & Q&A

February 15, 2025: The Backyard at Boca Fiesta & Palomino, Gainesville, FL
8:00 p.m. Five Eight rock show with The Pauses

February 16, 2025: Will’s Pub, Orlando, FL
8:00 p.m. Five Eight rock show with The Pauses and Virginity

February 17, 2025: Enzian Theater, Orlando, FL
9:00 p.m. screening & Q&A

March, 2025
TBD: Birmingham, AL; New Orleans; Dallas; Austin, TX