Neil Diamond, The Bitter End, NYC. May 8, 2008.
I’ve been dying to see Neil Diamond play for like 6 years now. I don’t know when I became a fan of his music, but it happened and it happened strong. He’s got about 16 albums out, and so it can be somewhat cumbersome to comb through those albums for the best stuff. I put out book called The Pocket DJ which has the best of his songs in there. Or you could download the iTunes Essentials. They’re pretty fucking amazing songs and I cry every time I hear “Red Red Wine.” I like to refer to him as the Jewish Elvis.
Anyway, my friend Andrew Borin told me that he was playing a MySpace secret show at the Bitter End on Thursday, so I emailed my buddies at MySpace to see if i could get in. They both said that there was no list — as per Neil’s request. Trevor Kelly said “When you write ‘Sweet Caroline’ you get to make the rules.” True. Can’t argue that.
Andrew passed by the Bitter End on Thursday morning and said there was no line, so I felt confident I could make it in. But when he got there at 3 or 4, he said there was a massive line down the block and had no doubt in his mind that the 250 capacity club was already spoken for.
So I went home from work defeated and was food shopping when I got a text from my brother Lawrence saying that our friend Gina was at the show, and suggested I might luck out. So I paid for my items, threw them in the fridge, and arranged to meet Andrew at the venue. I showed up and found him waiting in line:
Signs that it would be a special night were everywhere:
And there was no doubt that I was at the right place:
The line was really long and I was worried I might not make it in, so I thought about jumping in through the window, but this blockade was in the way:
These folks had been waiting for about 4 hours in line to see the Diamond
I went to say hi to my friend Kerry who was at the front of the line, when I turned around and saw NEIL MOTHERFUCKING DIAMOND WALKING IN!!!! omgomgogmogmgomg:
All the people i met in line were so sweet and stoked I got a photo of him.
I think he came out of this car that was parked outside for a while:
At 9pm, everyone that was going to get in, got in. Neil was ready to play, so the nice owners of the Bitter End placed a speaker outside for us to hear the show, so we all gathered around:
The crowd got fucking huge
Even though I couldnt get into the show, I had an amazing time outside with all the fans and the passerbys. People were coming by and couldnt believe that it was actually Neil Diamond!
All of us joining in to sing “Sweet Caroline” was an amazing moment:
And… I sorta chased his car as he left:
