Live music: Neil Diamond at the 3 Arena, Dublin

3/5

It was apt that Neil Diamond (below) opened his Friday night concert at Dublin’s 3 Arena with ‘I’m a Believer’. At 74, the Brooklyn crooner is still filling arenas with Irish believers and boy are they dedicated. Such is Diamond’s popularity that this is one of two concerts in Dublin and while the young bucks playing down at Marlay Park on the same night may scoff, they’d be doing well to have a career that lasts even a fraction of Diamond’s, let alone the impact he has had on popular culture over the last five decades or so. As well as his opener, a hit for The Monkeys, ‘Red Red Wine’ which he performed beautifully here is better known as a UB40 hit, while ‘Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon’ was featured in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.

And then there are the real hits, most of which showed up tonight. ‘Love on the Rocks’, ‘Hello Again’, ‘Song Sung Blue’ were all greeted like returning heroes and though the power that we associate with Diamond’s voice is beginning to thin out somewhat there is still that depth and warmth. Those punchy lines don’t have the impact they once did, resulting in Diamond sounding a little like Grandpa Simpson on one of his rants but there are surely few septuagenarians who can control the lower frequencies of the scale as well as Diamond and there are moments of pure honey.

Like most concerts there was a lull. Songs from the 2014 album Melody Road, though actually lyrically quite excellent, were met with indifference. Though the applause would indicate otherwise, people looked bored and even an attempt to put the lyrics of ‘The Art of Love’ on the, yes, diamond-shaped screen behind him didn’t generate the expected sing along. It all felt a bit like Ireland’s call — people just didn’t buy into it. With the sales pitch over and done with, normal service was resumed and a stream of recognisable anthems followed including ‘America’, ‘I Am…I Said’ and a rousing ‘Sweet Caroline’.“I’m going to need your help on this one,” he asked the audience at one point and burst into a rendition of ‘Song Sung Blue’. He got the help he needed and then some.“How nice, thank you,” he said taking a bow. Pretty much sums it up.