Supamolly

Supamolly is a roughly 100-capacity live room and bar in Berlin-Friedrichshain, operating in the basement of Jessnerstraße 41’s resident-run house project. Its defining feature is architectural as much as musical: gigs unfold in a former rear-courtyard oven-maker’s workshop, reached below a building occupied during Berlin’s post-Wall upheaval. The scale suits loud, close-range sets, with a calendar built around punk, ska, hardcore, dub and visiting DIY artists.

A cellar born from the Jessi

The story begins in July 1990, when a dozen West Berlin leftists occupied the then-empty Jessnerstraße 41; its side wing and rear building were in ruinous condition. After the Mainzer Straße clearances of 14 November 1990, residents from numbers 9 and 11 moved into the Jessi, and the group opened Supamolly later that year as an anarchist pub and concert cellar. The venue took its name from “Super-Molly,” the police label for improvised incendiary devices associated with the Mainzer Straße conflict, though former occupiers gave a different account of the bottle involved. In 1992 the occupiers became tenants under individual leases; seven years later, residents took control of the building through a cooperative shared with three other houses. That shift secured the setting in which Supamolly still operates.

The room today

Supamolly’s booking remains unusually direct: prospective artists can attend the Monday pub plenary from 20:15, or write to the venue. That process fits bills spanning punk and dub alongside ska, hardcore, experimental electronics, theatre and community events. Expect a compact basement performance area with the bar upstairs or nearby in the social space, plus a lift serving the downstairs party room and a wheelchair-accessible toilet. It works best for listeners who value proximity and varied grassroots programming over polished-club presentation.