Medusa's Returns (sort of)

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 15, 2004 3:01PM

Have you ever read American Skin? It's a six-year old novel by Columbia College professor Don De Grazia. Chicagoist is a big fan of it for a lot of reasons. First, it's got that "thinly veiled autobiographical novel" thing going for it (which is nice). Plus, it takes place during the heyday of Chicago's late 1980s punk/industrial scenes so there's the added joy of following the characters around the city as you turn the pages; the main character works at a club off of Belmont (the pseudonymous "Gorgon's" and spends a lot of time hanging out at the "Punkin'" Donuts.

We were reminded of the book this week when we found out that Medusa’s was throwing a 25-year reunion party tomorrow. At first, we were pretty jazzed...and then we felt pretty old. The original Medusa’s is 25 years old? Impossible! But then we dug out our old Nitzer Ebb albums and realized those are more than 15 years old so we just had another spoonful of Metamucil and let it go.

While Medusa’s on Sheffield is long gone, the spirit certainly lives on at bars like Karma and Crobar where you’ll find some of the original Medusa’s DJs like Teri Bristol, Psycho Bitch and John Curley. Tomorrow night at Sound-Bar they’ll all be back with some special guests as they re-create the feel of the three floors at the House of Medusa. There’s a VIP cocktail reception from 9 to 10:30 that you’ll need to be on the guest list for. Email TheHotParty@aol.com by 5 PM tomorrow woth your full name and the number of guests you'll be bringing to get on the list (we’ll not comment on the irony of a Medusa’s event being 21 and over). Post-cocktails, the password “Medusa” will get you in free before midnight.

Chicagoist wishes we were still young enough to try and sneak in underage. Just for old time’s sake. We're not the only ones with half-finished memories of the place as this web page attests.