Real Diamond at the Mauch Chunk Opera House

Real Diamond, a Neil Diamond tribute band, graced the stage this past Saturday night at the Mauch Chunk Opera House and played to a nearly sold out crowd.

The full band consists of Kevin Crandall (Keys, Acoustic Guitar, Musical Director), Pam Carbona (Keys/Vocals) , Larry Bergman (Bass Guitar/ Promotional Manager), Fred Sega (Drums) , Mike Pollack (Trombone/Percussion) , Debbie Fossile (Singer/Percussion) and Sharon Stirling (Singer/Percussion). All are led by a Neil Diamond channeling lead vocalist Curt Di Domizio. No joke, this man sounds just like the real Neil Diamond!

I had the opportunity to sit with the entire band before the show and ask them a few questions about touring and about their love for all things Neil Diamond.

Q: How long have you guys been together as a band?

Curtis: Since June of 2008.

Q: So you haven’t been together that long?

Curtis: It was my brain child. I found all the musicians on Craig’s List. One guy brought in another friend and so on and so on and Real Diamond was formed.

Q: And what brought you to Neil Diamond , what was it about Neil Diamond that made you want to go out and be a Neil Diamond tribute band?

Curtis: Rock and Roll was only good for bars, which is what I always really did , and I wanted to go to the next step up; playing casinos and places like that. And, it was either Elvis or Neil Diamond and there are already too many Elvis impersonators, so it was Neil Diamond.

A: So is your goal to get a gig playing in Vegas?

Curits: Eventually. We’re playing Trump Marina next Saturday and it will be our third trip to Atlantic City. Then, after that, we’re up to Connecticut on December 6^th at the Mohegan Sun. We’ve also played the Delware Park Casino . We are a casino and theater band.

Q: Have you played in Sands yet in Bethlehem?

Curits: It’s too small . If you look at the size of my band the stage is very small and tight. If we played there we would have to do a scaled down version and then you are not getting the real show and the full Neil Diamond experience.

Q: And what is the most interested place or venue you guys have played?

At this point the entire band started talking about their favorite venue. Most of them, being PA natives, immediately mentioned Penn’s Peak as their favorite.

Curtis: Mohegan Sun. They were great. They rolled out the red carpet gave us food, rooms .

Q: Put you in the high roller suite huh? And , how much money have you guys lost? (everyone laughs)

Someone mentions Manhattan and how much fun it was to play there.

Q: Usually I ask all the acts that come through here about their touring and to share with us some really outrageous story from the road. I’m sure you must have one.

Curtis: nCan you turn that off (referring to my recording device and the entire room breaks out in laughter)

Q: You can make it PG version.

Curtis: We had a show in Michigan and so we rented the van and seven of us piled into this van with all of our equipment and we drove for 10 ½ straight hours. We kept going to Canada. We drove out there and we showed up and we thought we were at the wrong place because it looked like an estate and there was an entrance with a 400 ft long driveway and at least 100 acres surrounding it. They really treated us great . There was this one member of the band that was out of control and he ended up steeling booze. It was a James Bond themed party and they spared no expense. They had girls dressed up like each of the James Bonds girls. It was insane.

Q; I take it that member is no longer with the band?

Curtis : Oh no, and that’s why he’s not with us anymore.

Curtis: The funniest part was that every time I was heading back I kept ending up at the bridge into Canada. I couldn’t get away from that stupid bridge. We drove two or three hours out of our way to get home. So that was probably he most interesting.

Another band member: Yeah.. this big white van packed with people kept pulling up to the border and turning around.

I made a joke about the short lived TV show National Security this past summer, and how they all would have ended up on it if they were filming then, and they all laughed.

Curtis: We also got lost in Detroit in the ganglands. It was bad.

Q; I’m sure each of you have your own personal favorite Neil Diamond song so we’ll go down the list and you can each name your favorite.

Curtis: We’ll start with Jamie

Jamie: I would say Crunchy Granola’s (several other band members are in agreement with that choice)

Larry: I was going to say that too (Crunchy Granola)

Pam: Well I play piano and I just love September Morn

Bobby: Cherry Cherry

Mark: Solitary Man

Debbie: ‘Play Me’

Sharon: I love ‘You got to me’

Steven: ‘ Sweet Caroline’

Micheal: Right now I’m liking ‘Brooklyn Roads’

Someone else chimed in ‘Crunchy Granola’

Curtis: ‘Love on the Rocks’ is my favorite because the new version we’ll be launching, not tonight but in a week or so, is a really powerful version.

Larry: The love songs are beautiful.

With that we went on to talk about how everyone knows at least one Neil Diamond Song, no matter what age. With that I asked if anyone had anything to add.

Curtis : You’ve got a really cool town here!

I agree completely!