A chance encounter with Bad Religion found local six-stringer Rich Hope rubbing shoulders on-stage with the legendary California punkers at LIVE at Squamish on September 5.

“We were playing on the smaller stage, and they had come to check it out,” Hope told the Straight. “They gave me a call on my phone after I was done and said, ”˜Come on over to play a song.’ ”

While Hope scraped steel perfectly on the main stage during the outfit’s “Man With a Mission,” a classic country-inflected cut from its 1993 masterpiece Recipe for Hate, the local musician admits he’d never heard the song before this weekend. “I’ve known some Bad Religion songs peripherally, but not that particular one,” he said, laughing. “Through the miracle of technology I just looked it up on iTunes and learned it in a very loud dressing room.”

Though Hope is used to playing centre stage with his Evil Doers, he relished the opportunity to back up the veteran band. “That’s what those festivals and being a musician is all about: getting together on the spur of the moment and doing something like that. It’s one of the most fun things you can do.”