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26 March, 2008
The Clean and Haunted Love - The Backstage 30/01/08
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The relevance of [The Clean] must surely be brought into question in this day and age. With a history that reaches all the way back into Dunedin’s punk inspired late seventies, through seminal Flying Nun releases and national acclaim, through a break up and years-later reunion, urgent and vital albums seceding to more average fare, what could [The Clean] mean in 2008?

Well they’ve just recorded a new album in the US and are bringing their periodic live shows to Dunedin for two nights, this Wednesday night show being an early one with an 8:30pm start to suit all the old folks with work the next day, and no penchant for late week nights. The crowd, as may be expected, is certainly not young, mainly the same age as [The Clean], and some even taking their children along to introduce them to the music they grew up with so many years ago. To be honest, it was surprising there weren’t more fresh faced youngsters there, keen to see how and why this band may have earned their seminal tag. Maybe it’s a sign that [The Clean]’s appeal is mostly nostalgic, or maybe it’s just that there’ll be more young people at the gig the following night. First up is Haunted Love, whose relevance is most certainly not in question.

Haunted Love’s first song is so delicate, wafting in from the ether, fragile and yearning, “You’ve been waiting your whole life/ For some kind of fright” rendered in the most beautiful melody, a minimal beat and occasional guitar accentuating the keyboards. Between songs Haunted Love reveal themselves to be lovable goofballs, introducing us to their almost childlike and uniquely female perspective before producing song after song of superbly crafted pseudo-goth pop, inhabited by museum ghosts, werewolves, robot boyfriends and rampant teenage hormones. Haunted Love are the personification of intelligent charm and are an absolute jewel in the crown of Dunedin’s current musical spectrum.


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