Neil Diamond’s Carbon Footprint

One prime measure of a pop institution still filling arenas remains their voice. Any left? When Rock & Roll Hall Fame singer-songwriter Neil Diamond emerged onstage at the Frank Erwin Center Sunday night delivering “I’m A Believer,” his registered low. Maybe 62%.

Color New Orleans’ Clarence “Frogman” Henry green with croak envy. Diamond, 74, couldn’t properly deflower “Desiree” next: “It was the third of June/ On that summer’s day / When I became a man/ At the hands of a girl almost twice my age.”

For “Love on the Rocks” third, the double drums, double guitars, double synths, two back-up singers, and four horns behind Diamond (along with a bassist) quelled. Suddenly, you could actually hear the Brooklyn kid’s singing – delicate but intact. Call it 74%.

Other than a couple noticeable drop outs in the encore nearly two hours later, Diamond’s vocal delivery took a backseat to his songs and knowing performance skills. Stepping stagefront with one arm raised toward the horizon might be considered his signature move to the point of derision, but when punctuating a dozen modern standards, it works. Musical interjections demand exclamation points.

Admit it, no indie band will ever out-rock Diamond on his “Girl, You’ll be a Woman Soon,” an early highpoint Sunday.

Better yet, with a canon like Diamond’s, the audience – here filling better than two-thirds of the UT drum – should contribute its share of the heavy lifting. During “Play Me,” they gave as good as they got, standing to deliver the chorus: “You are the sun/ I am the moon/ You are the words/ I am the tune.”

“Girls screaming – makes me feel like I’m 70 again,” cracked its author afterward.

“Red Red Wine” made patrons lose their AARP-loving minds. “Brooklyn Roads,” accompanied by home movies of Diamond as a child, bonded him palpably to his audience. “Done Too Soon,” which anticipated Jim Carroll’s “People Who Died,” R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine),” and Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” reeled off its roll call sans teleprompter.

No earpiece, no computerized lyric scroll.

Even a triptych of new tunes from October’s Melody Road (“Nothing But a Heartache,” “In Better Days,” “The Art of Love”) found their mark – and without old-school hooks. Those arrived in a barrage next to close out the main, 90-minute set: “Forever in Blue Jeans,” “Cherry, Cherry,” “I Am I Said.” A sea of cell phones lit “Holly Holy.”

Encore opener “Cracklin’ Rosie” limbos too low for Diamond’s register now, and “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show” cedes tent-revival fervor to the Woodstock era despite its maker’s preaching at the close. “Heartlight” to finish dwells forever in Diamond’s balladic wheelhouse. All became superfluous once “Sweet Caroline” was sandwiched therein.

When an arena chants not only a song chorus but the chord sequence that follows it, mass unity is at hand. Diamond and his flock could’ve sung “Sweet Caroline” and its triple exclamation (“so good, so good, so good”) until sunrise and nearly did. Meet an outsize carbon footprint with immediate justification.

Set-list, Frank Erwin Center, 4.19.15

“I’m A Believer”
“Desiree”
“Love on the Rocks”
“Hello Again”
“You Got Me”
“Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon”
“Play Me”
“Red Red Wine
“Beautiful Noise”
“If You Know What I Mean”
“Brooklyn Roads”
“Shilo”
“Done Too Soon”
“Nothing But a Heartache”
“In Better Days”
“The Art of Love”
“Forever in Blue Jeans”
“Cherry, Cherry”
“Holly Holy”
“I Am I Said”
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Cracklin’ Rosie
“Sweet Caroline”
“America”
“Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show”
“Heartlight”