Morrissey has not had the best luck with Southeast Texas this decade. Because of the well-coiffed ex-Smiths singer and overall ’80s icon’s health difficulties (and super-busy schedule), it took a year and a half to reschedule a 2012 date at Beaumont’s Julie Rogers Theater. His return to the Bayou City for the first time since April 2009 at Jones Hall, scheduled for this Saturday evening at White Oak Music Hall, had been sold out for weeks.
Alas, it was not to be. Morrissey’s keyboardist, Gustavo Manzur, fell ill earlier this week before a show near Denver, which has ultimately forced the tour’s Texas dates to be canceled, Houston included. The news was confirmed by White Oak Music Hall late Tuesday with this Facebook message:
It is with great regret that the sold out engagement with Morrissey has been canceled due to severe illness of a member of the band. Refunds will be available at point of purchase. If you purchased from StubWire, your refund will automatically go back onto the credit card that you used to purchase.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and hope to announce a rescheduled date soon. The tour will continue as planned in Detroit from Nov 23 onward.
Any rescheduling news there is to report will first be posted at whiteoakmusichall.com. This is a blow, to be sure, but Moz fans should not lose heart completely. A pair of events celebrating the singer’s return will proceed as scheduled, starting with Friday’s Rudyard’s show by Rockin’ Lloyd Tripp, the Austin-based rockabilly musician and former bandmate of Morrissey guitarist Boz Boorer. A tribute to the recently passed “Ducktail” singer Joe Clay is planned, along with DJ sets by Los Skarnales’ Felipe Galvan, Big E, Black Slacks and the Houston Press’s resident Moz expert, Abrahán Garza. (Boz and Tripp have already jammed at Rudz earlier this year, notes Garza, and “you never know what might happen.”)
Then Saturday, Garza will turn what was supposed to be a Morrissey afterparty at Little Dipper (304 Main) into “Morrissey + Smiths Night,” and moved up the start time to 8 p.m. He promises to take requests all night (“come hear all the songs you wished you had heard at the show”), and suggests parking in the Market Square garage at 300 Milam. Free for 21 and up.
This article appears in Nov 10-16, 2016.
