Live: The Clean stays youthful at the Echo

The Clean at the Echo review: The New Zealand band still packs energy, especially when it performs 'Tally Ho.'

When the Clean played its first number Wednesday night at the Echo, 'Tally Ho' didn't sound 31 years old.

That's partly because there's a Peter Pan, 'forever young' quality to the song's jangly-pop propulsiveness. The New Zealand band members were teenagers when they made 'Tally Ho,' and they become teenagers when they play it. 

But it's also because, for most ears, the song's still a discovery. Even in its home country, the Clean is only an underground legend, and it's enjoyed mere waves of cult success abroad.

In recent years, the Clean has been discovered by devoted Pitchfork-wielding connoisseurs, in part because taste-making indie label Merge (home of Arcade Fire and M. Ward) released its last album, 2009's 'Mister Pop.' The pogoing fans at the Echo sang along to 'Tally Ho,' but it was probably the first time most of them had heard it live, considering the Clean has played only a handful of stateside dates in its lifetime.

Like the Velvets or the Feelies, two bands its intricately strummed sound references, the Clean is a small but important band.