This is out first date of the tour. The night before, Christian gives us the word I'm not coming on tour. I don't want to miss any reruns of Ally McBeal. Plus, my virtual boss, Imaginary Joe won't give me the time off. So, Its Jeffery Sez, the three piece. Jai and Chris didn't feel too bad about this but Michael?? Being a sloppy guitar player, he's pretty scared about the whole thing. Anyway, we show up in Hope for our first show. Unload, set up and do a sound-check in front of a bunch of surly local-types. Not very fun having a group of people all pissed-off-like staring at you while yer trying to get stuff happening. They hate it when you interrupt the Keno game. After we were done, Bev and Andy assures us that a different crowd will be there for our set. Bev and Andy were both right and wrong about this. Yes, there were some different people. "some" different people. The toughest guy in Hope. Well, that's how we refer to him, was parked right in Michael's focal-point. Any time he looked out into the audience, staring right back (along with numerous uncomprehendable hand gestures), was Hope's toughest guy. by the second set, things were starting to work in our favour. A younger crowd started to grow. The post and pre song cheering doubled. We were winning them over. The Toughest Guy In Hope had left. ***According to Hope folklore, The Toughest Guy In Hope usually picks out an innocent guy to fight. He simply points him out and says "You! Outside!". This night it didn't happen! Perhaps the Sez music soothed his violent side. Living in Hope is a former member of "The Tragically Hip". His mane is Davis and he plays the alto sax. We met him after soundcheck and after talking with him for a while, Michael invited him to join us for the second set. We figured it would be a cool experiment. He sat in for three acoustic songs and it was very cool. This added to the excitement of our audience having one of their own celebs joining our set. The vibe in the room was fantastic! The rest of the evening was spent meeting the locals like this dude Randy Marlatt. He played keyboards for the Headpins. Thanks Kenny for the shooters. If all goes well, we'll be back in late July or Sept. Thanks to Rick for the encouragement.