When Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray fame steps into a room, he has a way of enveloping every single person in it with the walls of his enthusiasm. A celebrity spreading his energy into a group of people gathered before them is normal, but that energy existing as pure, unbridled optimism is definitely rare — and McGrath exuded that optimism all night when the Crystal Pepsi Throwback Tour landed in Phoenix, effectively invading the city with ’90s throwback vibes.
Pepsi decided to bring a few journalists along for that ride, and what initially seemed like a chill day in a warm city eventually turned into an entertaining mix of home runs, fried foods, sunshine and 90s nostalgia. For the return of their mythical Crystal Pepsi, they teamed up with a team that was formed in the ’90s, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and a musical staple from the ’90s — McGrath and his band Sugar Ray.
The return of Crystal Pepsi has been in the works for years, and while some fans simply couldn’t wait, the throwback, clear Pepsi officially returns to store shelves today, for a limited time.
To mark the momentous occasion, Pepsi took over Phoenix on a warm Friday evening as the Diamondbacks and Chicago Cubs — complete with a large congregation of traveling fans that made the game feel like a home game for the Cubbies — and plenty of throwbacks to the internet’s favorite decade peppered into the festivities. The team superimposed the faces of several players onto iconic characters from the ’90s like Ace Ventura, Happy Gillmore or Steve Urkel and played old school ’90s hits from all genres all night. Throwback outfits were sprinkled throughout the stadium on fans and team employees, and even the four massive home runs hit over the course of the game were reminiscent of the ’90s era of juiced up baseballs and players.
Still, the star of the night was McGrath, who lit up the press room before the game as he rotated between reporters discussing his decades-long career, the ’90s era he helped define, and the Crystal Pepsi that brought it all together on the second night of a whirlwind, three-day tour that included a stop in New York with Busta Rhymes and another in Miami with Salt-N-Pepa. Part of that optimism he just oozes is rooted in his ability to embrace nostalgia, and what it means to be an act that maintains its reverence from fans years after his commercial peak.
Our '90s Night postgame entertainment @mark_mcgrath receives his own #Dbacks jersey from Torey Lovullo and A.J. Pollock. pic.twitter.com/8JjCnU890D
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) August 12, 2017
“For a lot of musicians when you hear nostalgia and you’re being associated with it, it means your career is over,” McGrath said in the same enthusiastic tone he answered every question with. “I understand some people not embracing that. Michael Jordan would be playing basketball right now if he could, the good thing about music though is that I can perform forever, God willing. So, nostalgia, I embrace it.”
Part of why McGrath latches onto the ’90s is the same reason he feels fans do the same: The mixing and mashing of all sorts of music and the integration of all those crowds. “I think the ’90s broke down all barriers of music. It was the Lollapalooza age,” he said. “We listened to Eminem, Mariah Carey, Henry Rollins, Blink-182 and Smashmouth, and that was just one station. I think it was that era where it broke down all genres, music just became music. You had hip-hop kids going to raves with punk kids, and that’s what made it so special.”
Almost 20 years after his last No. 1 hit, the iconic track “Fly,” topped the charts, McGrath is still celebrating and reaping the benefits of the decade he helped define. For the past few years he’s toured the country on nostalgia tours, including this years I Love The ’90s tour alongside the likes of TLC, Naughty By Nature, Montell Jordan and more.
“I couldn’t get tickets to a show in these arenas two weeks ago, but I get together with all these big bands from the ’90s — these ‘nostalgia bands’ — and we’re playing those same arenas,” McGrath said. “So, it’s something I’ve always embraced, and I’ve always been super aware of where I stand in the music industry. I’ve been given more than I deserve, so being called a nostalgia act and someone that’s associated with the ’90s is more than I ever hoped for. So, for me it’s not a bad word, but I understand why it is to others.”
The adulation that follows those great acts from the ’90s was on full display on Friday night in downtown Phoenix. The Crystal Pepsi was flowing and smiles were abundant as well over 1,000 people formed a seemingly endless sea of bodies on Randy Johnson Way next to Chase Field after the Cubs defeated the hometown Diamondbacks 8-3. Fans in VIP guzzled the resurrected clear soda either by itself, or in cocktails as they gleefully threw on Pepsi shirts with the phrase “Word” splattered across the chest and anxiously awaited the advertised performance from McGrath.
Finally, he emerged, with the same exuberance he displayed in the pressroom before the game, and in an interview on the big screen during the game, and this time he hugged fans and embraced them on his way to the stage. Those who couldn’t make it into the fenced off areas watched from an adjacent parking structure, forming crowds of heads perilously poking through the crevices in the architecture to get the chance to turn back the clock.
When the show started, McGrath set the mood with the Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air theme song, and just before it was time to launch into his performance of his own hits and a few from his friends and competitors in the ’90s, McGrath made one simple proclamation. “The ’90s are still here.”
For about 40 minutes fans of every type of crowd, race, size and gender danced around with the same barrier-crashing energy McGrath spoke of earlier in the night. The same fans who cheered and squealed for the Fresh Prince theme did the exact same for McGrath’s performance of Smashmouth’s “All Star” and EMF’s “Unbelievable.” The whole performance was clearly a buildup to the biggest song of McGrath’s life and when it was time to perform “Fly,” he spoke glowingly of Chester Bennington in a touching dedication to the Linkin Park singer.
Finally, it was time, but McGrath made it clear, he wasn’t the show or the night’s attraction, it was the decade that just refuses to die. “You’re not cheering for me,” he said before his grand finale. “You’re cheering for a decade called the ’90s.” And they cheered all night, while downing Crystal Pepsi and jamming to “Fly.” The only thing missing was the frosted tips. Oh wait — Mark even had those too.
