Athens bands to invade Albany’s Oglethorpe Lounge

ALBANY — The Oglethorpe Lounge has been working hard over the past couple of years to become the go-to music venue in Albany, and on Saturday it will host the “Athens Invasion” concert event featuring longtime cult favorite Five Eight.

Spawned in the late-’80s burgeoning Athens music scene, Five Eight has toured with such major acts as R.E.M., Cheap Trick, The Ramones, Cracker, Pylon and Seven Mary Three. Known for its raw tenacious power and introspective lyrics, Five Eight has been a staple in the Atlanta and Athens area for more than 25 years. With songs tackling issues including social anxiety, suicide and mental illness, Five Eight’s brand of melodic, soul-searching rock is passionate and satisfying.

Five Eight’s story began in Hinman Dormitory on the campus of SUNY Binghamton in upstate New York when lead singer and guitarist Mike Mantione met bass player Dan Horowitz. According to the story, Mantione was ambling down the hall when he peeked into a room and saw Horowitz sitting on his bed improvising a half-remembered version of a Ramones song on a beaten-up, out-of-tune acoustic guitar that had a pencil for a bridge.

The two became friends/comrades in music and kicked around the local scene in Binghamton for a while in a band called The Reasonable Men. Not too long after, Mantione suffered a life-altering nervous breakdown, resulting in hospitalization for depression and psychosis. Against the advice of physicians, his family signed him out of the hospital and Mantione resolved to write his way through it.

What followed was a burst of creativity with songs like “Dawn of Son Melody,” “Streets of Fear,” and “Behind the Glass Wall,” all of which eventually became part of Five Eight’s repertoire.

After Mantione’s illness, fellow Reasonble Men member Dan Farnz apparenty decided to move south to Athens, taking all of the band’s equipment with him. So, Mantione, Horowitz and then-drummer Mike Palmatier followed, ostensibly to get their equipment back. Ironically, they all wound up living together in the same house. Eventually, Farnz left the band and they changed their name to Five Eight. Palmatier would also eventually leave, replaced by local drummer Patrick Ferguson, after a grievous work-place accident.

Five Eight, soon after put out a two-cassette release and began touring heavily in the Southeast. Their furious live shows and growing fan support brought them to the attention of Sky Records who signed them in 1990.

The band has survived lineup changes, continued to make albums, toured with major acts and garnered critical acclaim along the way, but they have never really broke out and achieved widespread commercial success. Commercial success or no, Five Eight has proven to be a true music tour de force.

Five Eight will be headlining the “Athens Invasion” event at the Oglethorpe Lounge Saturday, along with two other Athens bands — The Powder Room and Volt. Also performing will be Albany locals LaBete and Pretty Penny.

“’Local Music Lives Here’ is one of our slogans,” bartender and promoter Alison McCorkle-Cleland said. “We have really been trying hard to cultivate a music scene in Albany. This show is part of that effort to bring great talent to this town. We will have two stages, one inside and one outside. Michael’s BBQ will be on site and we will have some other fun promotional activities.”

“It is actually our 20th anniversary,” said Jimmy Pike, owner since 1996.

“We focus more on the heavy music, hard rock and metal,” said McCorkle-Cleland. “And we may be the oldest bar in town, continuously operated under the same name since 1954, but we want to have the newest and best music.”

The event for those 21 and older is $8 to get in and kicks off at 9 p.m. Doors open at 8 p.m.

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