In one of his songs for the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed wrote about Jenny, whose “life was saved by rock and roll.” In the case of Five Eight’s Mike Mantione, that’s just about the size of it.
When Mantione was in college, he spent time in a psychiatric facility, diagnosed with bipolar disorder and signs of schizophrenia. After his mother saw how heavily sedated the doctors were keeping him, she pulled Mantione out of the hospital. Back home, he began writing songs, pieces of music that dealt with his mental illness battles.
After developing a repertoire of tunes, Mantione began performing them publicly, soon assembling a band known as Five Eight. Early shows were characterized by Mantione confronting his demons onstage and thrashing about in a punk rock frenzy. Over time, the group gained a loyal following, along with the respect of fellow Georgia musicians from bands like the Indigo Girls and R.E.M.
Now, over 30 years later, after some personnel changes and a few stops and starts, the original band members are still performing together, with their story chronicled in the new documentary Weirdo: The Story of Five Eight, which will be screened at the River Oaks Theatre on Tuesday, March 11, followed by a Five Eight performance.
Speaking via Zoom, Mantione and I begin our conversation by comparing coffee mugs and T-shirts (his, Georgia Public Broadcasting and Nuçi’s Space – a health and resource center for musicians in Athens – mine, Mary Worth and Santana). Lest anyone think that, based on the previous couple of paragraphs, Mantione is some kind of sullen artiste, let the record show that his manner is friendly and engaged. With a new single (“Take Me to the Skate Park”) just out and a national string of Weirdo screenings and associated live performances coming up, Mantione, at times, borders on jolly.
While the film initially spends some time on Mantione’s struggles with mental health, the broader theme of the documentary concerns the lengthy and deep relationship among the members of Five Eight (Mantione, vocals and guitar; Dan Horowitz, bass; Patrick “Tigger” Ferguson, drums; Sean Dunn, guitar). While the guys do have occasional creative conflicts, the overall band vibe seems to be a positive one.
“Not to be Pollyanna about it, because it is difficult to be in a band for multiple decades with the same guys,” Mantione says, “There is encouragement, but there is also ‘no bullshit’ too. Don’t pretend, don’t phone it in. There’s an honesty and a trust in this band, and I’m always grateful for that. We all genuinely love to play music together. And we all love to hang out together. We have a really good time on the road.”
“I don’t know that I would be so driven if I didn’t have something biting at my heels. I think there’s definitely something to that.”
The new single, “Take Me to the Skate Park,” is as good an introduction to Five Eight as any. The accompanying video captures the band performing guerilla-style through a PA hooked up to a generator at an Athens skate park, with young skaters going about their business while the band blasts through just over two minutes of teenage frustration. Like many of Mantione’s songs, the lyrics unfold in the fashion of a Hemingway short story, revealing initially concealed complexities.
What at first appears to be a simple demand from a pissed off young man reveals deeper story, one in which the boy’s mother has left the family, with his father resorting to copious amounts of alcohol to dull the pain and doing his best to deal with his increased parental responsibilities. The song concludes with something of a rapprochement, as the son tells his father, “You really are cooler than Mom.”
It has been said frequently that there is a thin line between genius and madness (see Edgar Allan Poe, Vincent van Gogh, Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett), and that mental illness can sometimes fuel creativity. From his informed perspective, does Mantione buy that line of thinking? “I think there’s probably some truth to that,” he answers quickly. “I don’t know if I can speak to genius, but I don’t know that I would be so driven if I didn’t have something biting at my heels. I think there’s definitely something to that.
“On the other hand, I think that, in a part of my life, I kind of glorified that, maybe, to certain extent. Charles Bukowski and the Beats [made me think] ‘Wow, this is the way it’s gonna to be.’ Once I hit Five Eight, I stopped glorifying it and started taking it apart and started looking at it really carefully. And not being afraid of it. And owning it. And making it something that, not only was I going to cop to, but to ‘write about what you know.’
“Because I know depression. I’ve been there. I know delusions of grandeur. I know these things. And I can look at them and write about them. And I’m writing about them from a position of safety now. I don’t feel as vulnerable as I did when I first got into the band. I’m 62. I’ve raised five children. I’ve got a happy marriage. I’m in a different place. I just am. And I think that comes across in the performances. I’m happier, but I still know that guy. I know where I’ve been. And I still have a lot of respect for it.”
It seems that revisiting the dark corners of the mind while onstage might be an enervating experience. Was that ever the case? “I don’t want to sound flip, but it was very hard to try and recreate crazy every night, thinking that was what was asked of me. And I think in the beginning, in the early days of Five Eight, there really was a little of that,” Mantione says. “There was an acting to it, and I don’t have to be there anymore. I feel like the material stands on its own, and the intensity is there. I don’t have to produce it.”
At the beginning of Weirdo, a slide reassures the audience that “no rock stars were harmed in the making of this movie.” Is that really true? Are there any moments in the film that Mantione finds embarrassing? “So many things,” he says. “When you’re listening to yourself talk, it’s just super ugh. ‘Just shut up! Don’t take yourself so seriously!’”
As it happens, one of Mantione’s sons is also a musician. “Dylan is in a band called Dolonia, and they’ve got a following in Atlanta,” Mantione affirms. “He sings and plays drums. He’s a performance percussion major at Georgia State University.”
So, has the old pro, the rock and roll road dog, given his son any fatherly counsel regarding the music business? Mantione laughs and disabuses me of that notion. “He doesn’t take any of my advice. They just went out and found their scene. I go out and love it. That’s probably the only thing I do. I think that [kids] just naturally seem to gravitate to wanting to start a rock band. It’s crazy.”
The documentary film Weirdo : The Story of Five Eight, directed by Marc Pilvinsky, will be screened at the River Oaks Theatre, 2009 W Gray, at 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday, March 11, after which Five Eight will perform. For more information, call 713-496-3456 or visit theriveroakstheatre.com. $21.
For more information on Five Eight, visit fiveeight.com.
