To call them a dynamic duo would be a bit of an understatement, according to the next Australian band to tour through Kelowna.

From vocalist Dale Buchan’s description of his band Firetree, he and partner Josephine Cubis will leave their mark during their first North American tour with pronouncements like: “On Fire!” plastered over reviews.

“We like to dig in and rock out and put on a show,” Buchan declares in a telephone interview from Vancouver.

Yet it’s a bit of a stretch to think of this self-described “muscular” band producing a high-energy set after listening to their sweet melodies on MySpace and a minute later he’s willing to give that The Space Between, their debut album, doesn’t necessarily reflect their live performance-style in its EP format.

Packed with ballads and love songs, Firetree’s recorded work sounds as though the Buchan/Cubis duet is all about the mellow yellow tones of the stereotypical Aussie surf lifestyle with a little down-with-government angst thrown in to keep things interesting.

The pair have been playing together since Buchan saw Cubis singing at a restaurant in Queensland two years ago and she swept him off his feet like a rogue wave steals a tourist.

It is perhaps fitting, as such, that this sun-kissed crew is currently singing the praises of Said The Whale, their favourite find among our Canadian indie bands at the moment. They picked up on their music off the Peak Performance Project website.

Their first shared stage with a Canadian crew was with Vancouver’s The Reckoners, who are described by the Vancouver Sun’s Francois Marchand as “both ‘indie’ and modern yet undeniably ‘retro.’”

They’re also undeniably the most similar act to Firetree this side of the Rockies with Christina Simpson, in her near identical blond-streaked locks, staring over at partner Ricardo Khayatte in their promo shots with a look that could have been ripped from Cubis’s own pose catalogue.

Whether the Vancouver show actually produced the ultimate romantic musical double date or not is anyone in Kelowna’s guess, but when you listen to Firetree’s itinerary for their tour—which includes shredding the season opener on the hills at Whistler and braving the Coquihalla’s snowy crests to play here and Kamloops—one has to figure there just might be something to Buchan’s contention that the pair pack a hidden punch.

To find out if Firetree has really got the fire in their bellies they describe, local audiences will not have to wait long.

Normally the band tours the Australian Coast, as they are based largely out of Byron Bay in New South Wales, but will be at The Bike Shop Café, 1357 Ellis St., on Saturday, Nov. 20, from 7 to 9 p.m. There’s a cover charge at the door.