The sign says, “Sleeps eight.” Eight times 20 might be more accurate.

That’s about how many central Pennsylvanian New Wavers The Sharks crammed into an Ocean City, Maryland beach house during their ’80s heyday.

“It was an A-frame. It only held like eight people,” graying guitarist Steve “Zero” Wettig, 55, says with a laugh. “And the cops showed up, of course. Nobody got arrested, fortunately, but it came real close.”

Too close for comfort. That’s why Wettig says he took it outside to catch a few Zs.

“I slept in a tent,” he recalls. “It was too crowded. I really like people, but how are you gonna get any sleep when nobody leaves until 4 o’clock in the morning?”

The revived era of synthesized sounds, championed by new New Wave bands like The Killers, finds the former lipstick and rouge-rockers worrying less about all-out house parties and more about steady jobs and health insurance.

“I’m working for the corporate man,” says singer/bassist Shea Quinn of his managerial job at Guitar Center . “This is the real world these days.”

Yet Quinn, 45, can still let his long blonde hair down on occasion to break out a few U2, Elvis Costello and Clash covers, mixed in with Sharks classics like “You Better Watch Her” and “These Days.” Quinn says he expects to do Sharks reunions every six months or so.

The Sharks formed in 1979 with Wettig, drummer/vocalist Doug Phillips, guitarist Sam Lugar and singer Dave Schaeffer. Soon after, the quartet began a regular Lancaster/Harrisburg club circuit to play the band’s upbeat alternative to disco. Drummer Steve Swisher, 43, of cover band The Luv Gods – which also counts Wettig and Quinn as members – remembers those early days well.

“I’d go to the Metron to see them. It was the biggest club in the ’80s in Harrisburg here on Cameron Street ,” Swisher says. “They had Wang Chung there ... It would fit maybe 1,500 people or so. [The Sharks] would play there all the time and it was such the place to go.”

Early on, The Sharks subbed in Quinn for Schaeffer and added keyboardist Mark Showers. Apparently the new mix was just what the doctor – and millions of MTV viewers – ordered. By 1985, the newly realigned band entered a national contest on MTV called “The Basement Tapes.” After winning the first round and finals, The Sharks claimed a record contract with Elektra, $30,000 in gear, a high-budget video director and a shot at the big time.

“Oh, we were all over the place,” Quinn says. “The ’80s were a lot of fun – what I remember of the ’80s.”

It sounds well and good until one adds up all the elements: shooting a music video in Times Square in February 1986 with a -5 degree wind-chill factor. And it might be important to mention that the video shoot was a day-long process.

Still, the chill in Wettig’s voice has since warmed.

“To top that off, we were in the middle of filming and a band called Hybrid Ice, which is another band that still does reunions, they drove past in their limousine,” Wettig says with a twinge of awe. “That very same day. It was amazing.”

Despite little radio airplay, many personnel changes and a fallout with Elektra, the band continued making records and touring for the better part of a decade. Eventually, Quinn says he traded his time with The Sharks for gigs with Jeffrey Gaines.

“I was just trying to open some new things, some new horizons. And, it just got to be too much for everybody,” Quinn says. “I just went my own way and they went on from there.”

Quinn says he lost contact with the other Sharks for a few years, mainly because of hard feelings from him leaving the band. But, he says it was nothing that couldn’t be fixed over dinner, drinks and friends reminiscing about old times, like a beach house filled past capacity.

“Any animosity that was there is gone because we realize we’re hopefully older and a little brighter,” Quinn says. “There’s no time for that kind of garbage now.”