The Leisure Society – Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin 30/05/11

On a sunny day like today, the shopping centres and passing S-bahn trains of Berlin’s city centre gleam and sparkle as foreign tourists and local fashionistas wander and strut around below. Many of the radio stations are discussing the same thing – the big news is that Germany has declared that by 2022, it will have abandoned all its nuclear power stations. For all the talk of progress and change, however, the central city boroughs can sometimes seem a little static. That’s where Kreuzberg and The Leisure Society come in.

Long known as Berlin’s countercultural centre, Kreuzberg has since German reunification found itself near the city’s geographical centre, too. The Festsaal – or “banquet hall” – was once a wedding venue for the area’s large Turkish population. Now, behind a foreboding set of rusty gates flanked by graffiti-covered walls, the hall plays host to the latest date on The Leisure Society’s European tour to promote second album Into the Murky Water.

Opening forLondon and Brighton-based folk pop collective tonight are a local German outfit, The Lost Boys. The jovial four piece have jokes that go over the head of your correspondent, but they also have acoustic guitar, strings and a drumkit, not to mention a song which mentions Katy Perry. The somewhat clumsy English language lyrics can be a little distracting but the Boys’ unusual acoustic setup gives them enough room to put together some intriguing soundscapes, as uninteresting as the prospect of a piece called ‘The Suicide Song’ may sound.

There are maybe sixty or seventy people in the Festsaal’s slightly glitzy main room when The Leisure Society appear, and perhaps as many bottles of Beck’s. That crowd is more than keen on participating in Christian Hardy’s lively banter, even as they sometimes don’t quite understand it. “It’s nice to be back in Berlin”, Hemming announces, “last time we were here the snow was on the ground.” By contrast, an evening spent in the Festsaal is a relief from the blazing sun of the preceding afternoon; summer is fast setting in on the city.

As they explained to TLOBF recently, the Society are touring with a dedicated sound man for the first time at the moment, and their tight, confident playing sounds even better as a result. ‘Save It for Someone Who Cares’ is as bouyant and ‘The Last of the Melting Snow’ is as wonderfully heartbroken as ever. The crowd are as receptive to these familiar songs from 2009′s The Sleeper as they are with the newer material. Perhaps best among these songs is ‘I Shall Forever Remain An Amateur’, as ironic a statement from these seven talented players as could be imagined.

The Leisure Society escape the traditional trap of large bands in that each of them contributes irreplaceably to their big-hearted, consistently dynamic songs. Instrumentally, flautist Helen Whitaker is perhaps tonight’s star performer; a Jethro Tull-esque flute-led breakdown would just be a greedy request. Almost to a man, the crowd loudly demand an encore as the show concludes and after a minute or two the band gamely oblige, not least with their charming cover of Paul Simon’s ‘Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard’. Suddenly, finally, their secret becomes clear – we’re having fun because The Leisure Society are, too.