Upon covering this event most people asked me “Sugar Ray?!? They still make music?” I kindly replied, “Of course, they just released a new album called, “Music For Cougars.” Everyone at the Fillmore that night, on the other hand, knew all the words to their current single, “Boardwalk,” the ode to summer these laid back beach boys from California wrote to quench their hunger for songwriting. One thing you’ll notice in these pictures is how happy they were to be on stage. I mean, who wouldn’t be happy in a room full of women screaming at you to take your shirt off? In between songs the audience was treated to bursts of classic rock anthems such as Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.” In a turn to the goofy side, two dudes from Staten Island were called on stage to sing Crazytown’s “Come My Lady.” I don’t get it, you have a room full of beautiful women throughout the joint dying to be within five feet of you and two scruffy, yet quite amusing, guys from the “secluded” island of the five boroughs end up on stage. Baffling. But the humbling story about wounded soldiers’ bravery before rocking the shit out of 1997’s summer anthem, “Fly” made up for everything, including Mark McGrath’s stint on Inside Edition. Everybody’s gotta eat, so no judgement passed on a job that seemed quite uncharacteristic of the guy I remember bouncing off the walls and singing under water. That evening, Sugar Ray transformed a club down the block from Union Square into a headbanging gravitron of rock fury, plastering everyone in its wrath against the wall. These guys have the “Summer Vibe” on lock down, and the pics in this gallery are all the proof you need. Enjoy (^-^)/