It'll be brief. But it'll be big.

"We're going to play one song, shake Jay Leno's hand, wave, and that'll be it," says guitarist Doug McCarvell.

It certainly doesn't compare to opening for Smashing Pumpkins in front of about 80,000 spectators at a concert in Nuremberg, Germany. But McCarvell and fellow London native Michael Sage both know that when they appear with Bif Naked on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno tonight, the impact could be huge.

Ever since they joined Bif Naked's band about a year-and-a-half ago, McCarvell and Sage have been tasting the flavour of life amid the top tiers of rock 'n' roll. In addition to performing at the Nuremberg spectacle, performing 10 gigs with Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair festival this summer and touring with heavy-rock veterans the Cult, the two Londoners will appear with Bif on an episode of the TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, scheduled to air Oct. 19.

The 28-year-old McCarvell, who graduated from John Paul II Secondary School, and 25-year-old Sage, who completed his studies at Clarke Road and Beal secondary schools, might be familiar to local music fans from their former band, Genocide. That outfit, which mixed heavy rock and rap, formed in 1994 and released two albums.

But Genocide fell by the wayside when the two musicians hooked up with Bif Naked. Their band had opened for Bif during the summer of 1997, and when her regular guitarist and drummer left the band, her manager asked Sage and McCarvell to fill in.

And though Bif looks a bit intimidating with her earrings and tattoos, the London pair say she's easy to get along with.

"It was a little weird getting into her vibe at first," says McCarvell. "But she's real down-to-earth."

Even Sage's mother, who visited her son when the band performed in Atlanta during a Lilith Fair stop, quickly warmed to the sharp-mouthed singer.

"My mom walked into the trailer, they hugged, and it was great," says Sage. "Mom was totally impressed."

Bif Naked is getting big exposure south of the border; MTV has picked up her latest video and her album, I Bificus, has been remastered and re-released for the U.S. market.

And though Sage and McCarvell say American fans are as friendly as Canadian listeners, the pair agree that some Americans -- including a few Nashville natives who were less than thrilled with Sage and a sarong he was wearing -- tend to be a tad less open-minded than many Canadians.

"Rock fans are the same everywhere, I think," says McCarvell. "But as soon as you get out of the concert arena and pull into the (local) gas bar . . . then you see the difference in people."

Although the pair regularly visit friends and family in London, they admit they would move south in an instant if it would help their musical careers. And both are excited about the resurgence of rock spectacles.

"There's that mystique -- that's what's been missing in rock," says McCarvell. "I want to go to a (rock) show and be entertained. I don't want to see some guy whining about how bad his life is."

"A little bit of blood on the hands is a good thing," says Sage, adding he knows it's been a good show when his drum sticks raise more than blisters. "Unleash the beast -- it's rock 'n' roll!"