I’d always heard about the underground German punk clubs, but nothing could have prepared me for the blast I had at the bombed out dive bar Supa Molli. My new homeboy Severin, whom I met while walking through the Filmmuseum, set me up with the address and offered to meet me there Saturday night, promising there’d be some quality hardcore music on tap. Enough said, that was all I needed to know to check it out.
We took the U-bahn 5 to Frankfurter Allee in Friedrichshain. The bar is in a pretty non-descript location, so pay careful attention to the street addresses. It’ll be on the left hand side of the road if you’re coming from the train stop.
I took one step in and immediately felt at home. This place was packed with all kinds of cool cats whooping it up and putting down tall beers. All the cliché German punk looks were in full effect – Mohawks, black leather, dreadlocks, etc. God, I love this part of the city. It’s like NYC’s lower east side, but without any posing or posturing.
Severin wasn’t anywhere to be seen, so we grabbed the last unoccupied table and ordered some drinks. Heavy music filled the bar, a la early ‘90s Sick of It All or Life of Agony type stuff. The bartender told me it was a band called Sheer Terror. Damn straight y’all! Like I said, this place wasn’t much on décor, looking like it had been bombed out back in the day. There was graffiti on parts of the walls and completely covering the bathrooms.
Suddenly a few guys started pushing on this "wall", and after a minute the bartender came and opened a lock, revealing a semi-hidden door. Just then I saw Severin, and we headed back through the door. It opened into an enclosed alley, and we walked a hundred or so feet to another door. I felt like I was going to a crack house or something.
This was no crack house though. We paid 3,00 Euro each for admittance to the coolest underground venue I’ve ever seen. It filled up quickly, and we started getting down on some tall bottles of Berliner Pilsner for 3,00 Euro. First up was a female-led punk group that was the real deal. This wasn’t like punk in the States – these girls were pissed off and proud of it. They embodied everything about the punk style – loud, mean, and rocking serious spit-in-your-face music.
Capping off the night was a hardcore band that sounded like a mix between Slayer, Sepultura, and Earth Crisis. They were unbelievably tight, and didn’t waste any time chatting in between songs. This was some old school, headbangin’ metal in the truest sense.
If this is your kind of thing, hightail it over to Supa Molli. It’s an authentic underground punk club that’s gonna leave you wondering whether it’s real or just a movie set for some futuristic cyberpunk flick.