All that glitters might not be gold, but there’s little chance of missing the gleam of a diamond. As a jewel shaped entrance opens and the legendary New Yorker strides onstage, the rafters shake with excitable screams.
Make no mistake; Neil Diamond’s still got it.
“It’s awfully nice to hear women screaming out my name,” he says with a wry smile. “It makes me feel like I’m 70 again.”
Sure enough, the clock is most certainly rolled back over the course of the evening. Some Dublin fans might still have lingering memories of a let-down at Croke Park a few years ago, but from the second he leads his 13-piece band on I’m A Believer, it’s clear that this show is a different matter entirely. He might be solidly in bus-pass territory, but there’s no sign of him slowing down yet.
Hit after hit is rolled out for an adoring crowd; Red Red Wine, Hello Again, Forever In Blue Jeans, Holly Holy. It’s not an exercise in soulless karaoke either; the septuagenarian shows it’s not just Leonard Cohen who can charm a crowd well into later life, peppering the show with anecdotes, reflections and interactive exchanges.
The stop-start choruses of ‘Sweet Caroline’ are a staple at this point; the brilliance of displaying audience messages if they #TweetCaroline is something new. Perhaps that’s why, after a career spanning six decades, he can still pack them in, and still send legions home positively buzzing. A startling back catalogue with an enthusiasm to keep the show on the road, he shines as brightly as ever.
Good times never seemed so good…