Just a reminder that the first Bootsey X/Bob Mulrooney tribute/benefit show is at the Painted Lady tonight. If you're anywhere in the area and you love rock 'n' roll, you should be there. Bootsey is a Detroit rock legend...but more than that, he's always been one of the good guys. $10 at the door, which open at 8 p.m.; music starts at 10. Below is what appears in the Night & Day section this week...with the addition of the info that Jerry Vile will be reuniting the Boners for the first time in years tonight to play. Be there, damn it! Time to give back to one of the seminal guys who's always been there to give back to the local scene.
It ain't easy being a Detroit rock 'n' roller. You can play with all the seminal bands you want, rock it out at the right place and the right time, spend years building a fan base, and still find yourself unprepared for a serious crisis when it hits. Take Bob Mulrooney, aka Bootsey X. He has played with everyone from the Mutants to Rocket 455, from Andre Williams to the Sillies, from Coldcock to Nikki Corvette & the Convertibles. He's apparently known everybody and done everything. He hung with Lester Bangs at the old Creem house in Birmingham, worked at Sam's Jams, came up as a drummer and joined the Ramrods just in time to be immortalized on Motor City's Burning Vol. 1. In the early '80s, he named himself Bootsey X and fronted a band called the Banshees, later renamed the Lovemasters. With a tongue-in-cheek style that had one flier call him "the King of the Irish Teenyboppers," he never took himself seriously enough to be a drag. Now in chemotherapy after being diagnosed with a brain tumor, a bevy of Detroit musicians have come together to help raise funds for Bootsey in his time of need, including Timmy's Organism, the Lovemasters, the Meltdowns, the Space Heaters, Dale Beavers and more. Door at 8 p.m., at the Painted Lady, 2930 Jacob St., Hamtramck; 248-924-0298.
