X reaffirm their legacy, rally around ailing guitarist Billy Zoom at the Observatory

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Billy Zoom of X

Punk legends X kicked off a four-night residency at the Observatory on Thursday night on the heels of an announcement that morning that guitarist Billy Zoom has been diagnosed with bladder cancer.

||| Photos by Monique Hernandez

Zoom, 67, born Tyson Kindell, vowed to participate in Observatory shows, which celebrated X’s first four albums — “Los Angeles” on Thursday night, “Wild Gift” on Friday, “Under the Big Black Sun” tonight and “Fun in the New World” on Sunday — as he begins chemotherapy treatment. Fundraising efforts have been launched to help cover Zoom’s treatment; click here to help.

Zoom, the father of 9-year-old twins, underwent treatment for prostate cancer in 2010 and admitted in a note to the fund-raiser’s early supporters that his family is not yet financially recovered from that previous bout with cancer.

The band announced that Texas guitarist Jesse Dayton would sit in for Zoom on X’s ensuing tour, which starts next week on the East Coast and includes a free show with Dwight Yoakam on Aug. 8 at the Annenberg Space for Photography.

Thursday’s show at the Observatory was a show of old-school L.A. muscle, as the Blasters and Mike Watt & The Secondmen opened.