“Everybody has a Georgia Theatre story,” says Mike Mantione, guitarist and vocalist for local band Five Eight. Mantione’s Georgia Theatre story comes from when Five Eight opened for the Ramones in 1993.

“The PA kept blowing, [and] the Ramones got up there and blew it in the second song,” he said. “Of course, they didn’t stop. They didn’t even act like they cared, they just kept playing. And then, about six or seven songs in. [the PA] kicked back in again. It was like listening to an AM radio and then suddenly being thrown into a concert.”

Five Eight is headlining a benefit for the employees of the Georgia Theatre tonight organized by Mark Cunningham, guitarist for Helen, Dodge, and Daniel Peiken, a local concert photographer.

Cunningham and Peiken have organized several shows over the summer through the Georgia Theatre Phoenix Project, which has raised close to $3,000 for the rebuilding effort.

Immediately after the Theatre burned down, the Phoenix Project and many others leapt into action, holding shows intended to benefit the Theatre.

“It quickly united the music front,” said guitarist Adam Payne. “People were crawling out of the woodwork, being like, ‘I got my boots and a shovel, let’s get this thing cleaned up!’”

However, the outpouring of support without any official oversight did more harm than good, in many cases.

“As the money was coming in, they couldn’t keep track of it, and they were going to be expected to keep track of every dime that came in,” Payne said.

Eventually, Georgia Theatre owner Wilmot Greene asked bands to stop doing benefits.

“[Greene] wasn’t seeing anything from the benefit shows,” Cunningham said. The Theatre has since established an alliance with the Georgia Trust, enabling it to accept donations, and has begun a series of official benefit concerts at other venues in and around Athens.

Tonight’s show is intended to specifically benefit the employees of the Georgia Theatre, which had employed 50 people before the fire.

“I had several employees that had worked at the GATH since I had been there as a customer in college,” Greene said. “You could graduate, leave and come back years later and know that you could still find [the same people] sitting at the bar eating boiled peanuts or playing checkers. [The money from the concert] will go to the employees rather than rebuilding, [and] we will distribute the money raised to employees according to seniority and/or need.”

This show will be the last Georgia Theatre benefit show Cunningham and Peiken have organized independently. Five Eight will be performing with its original lineup for the first time in 10 years. “When Patrick [Ferguson], and me, and Sean [Dunn] and Dan [Horowitz] split ways it wasn’t exactly the greatest thing,” said Mantione. “Being able to get together again and explore stuff that was not explored has been really, really great.”

The performers are all passionate about rebuilding the Georgia Theatre.

“It’s always been our theatre,” said Payne. “Every time you went in there and saw one of the best shows of your life, or danced with a pretty girl, or you had any kind of memory in there it was yours.”