July 8-14, 2004

musicpicks

Benefit for Adam Boxleitner

by Patrick Rapa

ROCK/BENEFIT

Rupert Speed was a memorable presence on the mid-'90s Philly music scene — in part because they were so damn loud. Amid brash guitars and pounding beats, frontman Adam Boxleitner screamed like a madman for two and a half minutes. Then it was time for another song.

Of course, it takes more than guitars and dreams to make a music scene, and Boxleitner was just as much a fixture offstage: driving a beer truck, loading equipment, working behind the bar at the North Star, heading up security at the Troc. Sadly, the Lancaster-born Boxleitner is in a coma after a mid-June motorcycle accident left him with serious head injures and other complications. Like so many who make the music community their lives, he has no health insurance.

So it's time for the scene he served so well and so long to love him back. Already The Burning Brides — for whom Boxleitner once served as a road manager-roadie — have signed on to play the benefit show at The Khyber on Monday. So have his pals in Stinking Lizaveta and Angus Khan, who are reportedly learning some Rupert Speed songs for the show. The $30 cover includes beer donated by Yards, and all of the evening's profits (including money made from T-shirt sales and auctions) will go toward Boxleitner's medical bills. More benefits will follow, so stay tuned.

Mon., July 12, 9 p.m., $30, with The Burning Brides, Stinking Lizaveta and Angus Khan, The Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-238-5888.