There was a new sense of vigor and excitement. We’d never felt more excited to be making music. I wrote songs frantically, all the time. I would go out and come home in the morning with my pockets full of napkins that I’d written lyrics on. The songs were darker, stranger.

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.