The 2005 Neil Diamond Concert Tour

After all these years... Neil Diamond still has it.

 
I ended up seeing the 2005 Neil Diamond Tour at the HP Pavillion in San Jose last night (Saturday September 24th) on a sudden whim. The idea came at the last minute - so we didn't have time to buy Neil Diamond tickets on eBay or even Craigslist. In fact, it was so late that we had to scalp tickets - likely making us the first Neil Diamond ticket scalpers in the last 20 years. After some bargaining, we got mediocre seats on the second level, stage left.



We walked in a couple minutes late because of the scalping process - so I'm not sure exactly what we missed. But the first music we heard was a great sequence of  Kentucky Woman, You got to Me, and Cherry, Cherry. Neil's voice sounded fantastic - and truthfully, I was very worried that he'd have lost it by now... decades after some of these songs were written. But his voice is still there - still distinctfully powerfully and raw.

The show moved in thirds - with many of the hits coming in the first and last third. He concluded with a performance of Red-Red Wine and then a really fantastic version of Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show. In the first and last third of the show - he hit must of the greats on the Neil Diamond Greatest Hits CD

• Cherry, Cherry
• I Got The Feelin' (Oh No, No)
• Thank The Lord For The Night Time
• Kentucky Woman
• Shilo
• You Got To Me
• Red, Red Wine
• I'm A Believer
• Sweet Caroline
• Soolaimon
• Cracklin' Rosie
• Song Sung Blue
• Play Me
• Holly Holy

The only classics Neil left out were: Solitary Man and Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon. And when Neil played the classics - the entire stadium went absolutely nuts. People were dancing in the aisles, jumping out of their seats, falling over - it was as if Michael Jackson was playing during the mid 80s. People were just fascinated by Neil Diamond - forgetting that he's now nearly 70-years old, wearing a rhinestone jeweled shirt, basically just standing in one spot on stage. But they loved him (and so do I!). And better yet... he loves himself. Its unbelievalbe how self-absorbed Neil Diamond is. From the way he stands on stage to the way he greets the audience before and after songs, he really finds himself special. The best example came during a great rendition of Coming to America (and it was great) - on the two big screens next to the stage were montages of American immigrants during the 1800s, and flying eagles, and Ellis Island, and the works... All as if Neil Diamond himself was there a century ago escorting immigrants into the USA. It was so over the top and wild - but I'm not even sure the stadium noticed the video. They were so busy watching Neil Diamond croon... and he really can still sing.

My only other complaint came in two parts. First - the middle 30 minutes of the concert were rather painful because the music was quite slow and dull. It was capped off by a 15 minute rendition of a song that no one had heard of. It was rather excruciating and only made worse by the montage of flying seagulls which was supposed to represent the journey of live... give me a break. When he played his next classic song - the place errupted. Partially out of excitment and partially out of relief. Second - you'd expect Neil Diamond would have a pretty sweet set up - lighting, stage, etc. But it was just a simple stage unable to do anything but move up and down according to which part of the band was playing. That might have looked cool from the first row - but from the 2nd level, I could see the back up singers ducking underneath the stage. Neil Diamond should invest in some fancy lighting and pyro stuff - after all, it will only help him look better!

All in all, it really was a fantastic evening and a ton of fun. Go see the Neil Diamond 2005 Tour.

I am an eBay employee and this guide reflects my personal views and is not written on behalf of the eBay company