Medusa’s Rising
To something less than the great dismay of certain neighbors, the hundreds of skinheads, skate-rats, 708 weekend warriors, and punkettes of every description who used to swarm around the intersection of School and Sheffield every weekend night are now gone. The attraction was Medusa’s, the venerable juice bar, dance hall, and punk club for kids. The nine-year-old club began as a no-alcohol after-hours joint where one could spend the dead time before daylight in the company of friends. Neighborhood complaints eventually forced more conventional hours; for the past five years or so Medusa’s was merely the city’s most successful juice bar. But the area’s gentrification eventually overwhelmed the place. Owner Dave Shelton’s lease was up this year, and the imposing, four-story building is now being turned into apartments.
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At a closing party in June Shelton promised a new Medusa’s soon. Now it’s here, in what was formerly the Congress Theater at 2135 N. Milwaukee, just north of the intersection of Milwaukee, Armitage, and Western. The theater is a fancy 3,300-seater. Shelton is placing the main dance floor in the building’s gilt-and-marble lobby, which boasts a 60-foot ceiling, a pair of giant chandeliers, and a grand staircase. He’ll be showing movies in the main room and setting up a lounge in the balcony; later there’ll be variations on the old Medusa’s. band and video rooms. “The building’s been overlooked all these years because the outside’s nothing special,” says Shelton, who generally goes by the name Dave Medusa. “But inside it’s beautiful: the original plaster’s still there, and it’s all very ornate.
“A lot of the younger kids don’t know anything about the assassination,” he says. “It’ll be educational.”
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