By the summer of 1999, you could not turn on a radio in upstate New York without hearing Sugar Ray. “Every Morning,” “Someday,” “Fly” — Mark McGrath’s band owned the back half of the decade with a string of sun-bleached pop-rock singles built for exactly this kind of night. On Thursday, June 18, the band brings that catalog to Tioga Downs Casino Resort in Nichols, kicking off the venue’s 2026 summer concert series. Tickets are $40.
About Sugar Ray
Sugar Ray came together in Newport Beach, California, in 1986 under the name Shrinky Dinx, with Mark McGrath out front and Rodney Sheppard on guitar. A threatened lawsuit from the makers of the Shrinky Dinks toy forced a rebrand — they took their new name from boxer Sugar Ray Leonard — and the band spent its early years in punk and funk-metal territory before stumbling into something far bigger.
That something was “Fly.” The breezy, reggae-tinged single off 1997’s Floored spent eight weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart and carried the album to double-platinum. The follow-up, 1999’s 14:59, went triple platinum on the strength of “Every Morning,” which climbed to No. 3 on the Hot 100, with “Someday” close behind. For a band that started out playing nu-metal clubs, it was a remarkable pivot — and a run of hits that has aged into pure feel-good nostalgia.
Venue Info
Tioga Downs Casino Resort sits along West River Road in Nichols, deep in the Southern Tier. It is a compact casino room — the kind of setting where a catalog this familiar turns the whole crowd into a singalong. Opening night of a summer series always carries a little extra charge, and casino chairman Jeff Gural leaned into it, calling the booking “a great evening filled with familiar hits and summer vibes.” Doors and dining are right there, so it is an easy night to make a full evening of.
Tickets & Pricing
Tickets are $40, with showtime at 8:00 PM. Grab them online below, or pick them up in person at the Tioga Downs Gift Shop.
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