A Diamond Comes Our Way

Photos were forbidden, and the one I tried from my cell phone is just a blur. But Sunday night Norm and I got to go to a Neil Diamond concert at the Savvis Center in downtown St. Louis. A member of our church had comp tickets she could not use and passed them on to us. So our only cost was the $4 total roundtrip senior fare on MetroLink from the university parking lot to the station right across the street from the concert hall.

This was a make good on a concert in August that was postponed when Diamond was battling voice problems. We sat next to church friends Marty and Darrell and the four of us rocked out in our seats up in the nosebleed section. (I have to confess that earplugs from Walgreens made the amplification more comfortable.) We were amazed at the number of 30-somethings there who were on their feet and dancing to "Sweet Caroline" and other hits. The last time we saw Neil Diamond in concert was in St. Louis at the old (now demolished) Arena, some 30 years ago. He has slowed down some, and the tempo of some songs (notably Holly Holy) is also slower. But not all. The final encore was "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show" and it was as energetic as ever!

We enjoyed the whole evening: it was warm, the place was easy to find, we rode the rails with standing-room only crowds of fans from the far suburbs. I couldn't get to sleep until after 2 a.m.! Wow.