“I’m sorry for being late — I was cooking pancakes as fast as I could.”
It’s a perfect opening salvo from Five Eight drummer Patrick Ferguson as he joins our Sunday morning interview. An offhand but apt synopsis of an ethos of workmanlike perseverance, vulnerability and humor — all distinct characteristics of his band’s career. Few bands emerging from the Southeast indie-rock scene of the late 1990s can claim the intensity, longevity and creative growth that Five Eight achieved while also holding true to their commitment to music as a deeply personal healing art.
Five Eight was initially birthed from the mental-health struggles of frontman and lyricist Mike Mantione, who in his early 20s suffered a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized for manic depression and schizophrenia. From their debut in 1989, the self-produced cassette release Passive Aggressive, through to 2017’s Songs for Saint Jude, Mantione has always been upfront about how this experience shaped the focus and discography of the band.
“Five Eight is supposed to be a visceral impact and a way to deal with emotional trauma. That was the idea of the band in the beginning,” says Mantione. “The power of music to evaporate the most intense mental illness is what it was supposed to do. To see it in that light is pretty badass.”
The band’s legendary live performances and unpredictable stage presence are a blend of tent-revival exorcism, vaudeville absurdity and late-night confessional; intense but intimate, chaotic but concise, haunted but humorous. These traits can be hard to capture in a recording studio, but Five Eight’s deep discography proves their willingness to try and capture that quicksilver essence on tape.
From the immediacy of early work like I Learned Shut Up through the glimmering alt-rock of Gasolina and on to the more contemplative The Good Nurse, Five Eight have never shied from allowing the music to guide them.
“A lot of our recording experiences are not necessarily that deliberate but it just evolves on its own,” says bassist Dan Horowitz. “Sometimes there is so much sound it gets a little cluttered but we have moved away from that as we continue to learn how to record.”
Attempting to capture the fullness of a band, their story or even the larger context of cultural influence is a herculean task when the subject is as nuanced as Five Eight. Enter Marc Pilvinsky, a journalist and filmmaker, whose latest project, Weirdo (named after Five Eight’s 1994 album) is an encyclopedic documentary that charts the trajectory of the band from impish loud fast rules thrashers to the august artists they are now. The film plays not only as a love letter to a band but as a deep dive into the psyche of a generation, a study of adversity and maturity.
Filled with the requisite live archival footage, it folds in touchingly candid commentary that offers insight into the struggles, patience and love it takes to remain a working band. It’s a portrait of intensity and healing.
“The whole documentary is filled with vulnerable moments, and that is the power of it,” says guitarist Sean Dunn.
After more than three decades of writing, performing and recording as a band in multiple permutations, the members of Five Eight continue to be committed to creating art that is personal, immediate and — gasp — fun on their own terms with a humility that betrays their talent and unique alchemy.
“We remain fairly quirky, but we’re just a rock band that writes songs,” says Patrick Ferguson. “There are a lot of bodies buried beside the road at the intersection of art and commerce. I don’t know if any major label was ever going to get Five Eight, but there was this illusion that that could potentially happen, and it was such a disaster for many good artists.”
So are Five Eight grizzled rock & roll survivors or just four idealists trying to make some sense of and put something helpful into this world? You have two chances to decide for yourself this week. Five Eight hit Orlando to sweep up the heartbreak detritus of Valentine’s Day weekend with a live performance at Will’s Pub on Sunday. Then Weirdo screens Monday at Enzian Theater, with a post-film Q&A with the band by local musician and indie scholar Tierney Tough.
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This article appears in Feb 12-18, 2025.