It's no secret that my favorite genre of music is instrumental soundtrack music (in fact I've actually written about some of my favorites that you can find here) and the Game of Thrones soundtrack just has a signature sound to it that anytime I listen to it, I feel like I could be a Queen...no wait not a Queen, a Khaleesi. The music combined with the emotional roller coaster that is the show is just euphonious (yes I am using that big SAT word to make myself sound smart).
Last November, I had been playing around online and stumbled across this video about a concert tour that would be conducted by Ramin Djawadi (the composer of Game of Thrones soundtrack) and was just going to be about the music of Game of Thrones.
After watching the video and discovering that the tour was actually going to be playing near where I lived, I was ecstatic as I put in the request for tickets in the nose bleeds straight onto my Christmas list. And I actually got them (thank you again Nana and Poppi)! From then on, it had been something I was looking very much forward to for 2017.
This week I got to finally use my tickets and attend "The Game of Thrones Concert Experience". Needless to say it did not at all disappoint and actually turned out to be one of the best concerts I've ever been to. I am sure some people are wondering how a plain orchestra concert could possibly be so exciting, but trust me it was borderline adrenaline pumping.
Upon arrival, the stadium had a line going out of the building, letting me know that I wasn't the only nerd excited about this event. In fact a supposed 17,000 people had attended that evening. The stage was absolutely ginormous, even from our seat in the almost back row my Nana and I knew that this was going to be a memorable event about our shared favorite show.
However, it had seemed that there were too many people in the back seats with us and not enough on the ground floor. That was when ushers started giving floor seats to everyone behind us to go do down. I wasn't bothered though that they weren't approaching us, and I'm actually never bothered by far away seats, I was just happy to be there. Finally though the band started to warm up and I was a bit excited (note the shaky camera in the GIF below due to the fact I was vibrating with excitment)Once the concert had started they opened with the main title for the show and it sounded perfect, with the only downside of people still making their way to their seats. This meant that for the first two songs I had to keep dodging around peoples elbows to get a glance of what was going on (side note to any theater going people: Always get there early if you can). Luckily after people had settled down we were able to watch the show in all it's glory.
Everything flowed seamlessly and it really was an experience. As the music played the screens would coordinate with the scenes the music came from along with other bonuses to make things even more atmospheric. For example, when they played the music from the battle in the episode "Watchers on the Wall" snow began to fall from the stage and I could've sworn the stadium became colder.
Honestly the whole time my arms were pretty much covered in goosebumps and my Nana admitted that she got a bit teary eyed at one point. Things only got better from there though.
The show did in fact have an intermission and it turns out that they were still trying to give away floor seats and....we got chosen! Of course we took the opportunity to be even closer to the magic and I may have had a little fangirl asthma attack once we reached our seats.
You can tell there was a total difference in the seating.
The second act was even better than the first as they began to go over more emotional scenes and even added more effects. By more effects I mean straight up dragon fire as they played through the "Dance of Dragons", we actually were able to feel the heat from our seats. Everything was so spectacular that I really couldn't get myself to try and video tape some of the song to share with people, mainly because it would distract me from everything and I was having to much fun!
One of the really fun parts of show though was the audience and their shouting. I honestly thought I was the only one who shouted at the TV when I watched this show, but this proved me wrong. I have been to shows hoping for the crowd to participate and get excited that were not as passionate as this crowd. The best example I can give happened during the "Battle of the Bastards" portion of the concert.
The shouting really started up once the screens started a very certain scene that I'm sure had lots of people shouting.
The whole crowd started shouting things like "ZIG ZAG RICKON!" "YOU CAN MAKE IT RICKON" "ZIG ZAG DAMN IT!" "GET HIM JON" "F**K YOU RAMSAY". It was absolutely hilarious and also therapeutic because it's a pretty sad scene so we all got to get our emotional shouting out.
Honestly I could've just sat there at all night long and had them play through every episode. It was such a fun experience that I hope it happens every year till the show ends because I want to go see it again and again. If you are a huge Game of Thrones fan like me and absolutley love the show, you have to see this while it's on tour because I could not stop smiling and I hope every fan gets to experience what I felt that night. To end this article on an even happier note, here is a GIF if Ramin himself jamming on the guitar to "The Bear and the Maiden Fair".