Winter came, and Madison Square Garden was not ready for it.
The line was out the door well past the scheduled showtime of 8 p.m. as thousands of people crowded into the New York City venue on Tuesday for the “Game of Thrones” live concert.
Despite the MSG madness, the pyrotechnics, which composer Ramin Djawadi told The Huffington Post are his favorite part of the show, were enough to melt any worries away. Over the course of the night, Djawadi and his orchestra took the audience on a journey through the first six seasons of the show with the help of music, effects and elaborate stage designs. It’s almost as if you’re a part of it. Then, a realization hits you:
Uh, you are part of it.
Somewhere between all the dragon fire and people screaming out “King in the North,” you start to get a feeling there’s an even deeper thing going on.
Theory: The “Game of Thrones” concert secretly gives you the experience of being Bran.
When HuffPost asked actor Isaac Hempstead Wright to pick a pop song that could serve as his character Bran’s theme, he said, “I think we could get something from the ‘60s for Bran, something kind of trippy. He’s up with all the trees and the dreams, some kind of swinging ‘60s ... Woo!”
Woo! We couldn’t agree more.
On “Game of Thrones,” it doesn’t get trippier than Bran. He’s able to use psychic abilities through Weirwood trees to see visions of the past, present and future in brief glimpses.
This is pretty much the experience at the concert, and there’s a bunch of evidence to support it.
1. Like Bran’s visions, the show basically starts out with a Weirwood tree.
”Weir” on to you, “Game of Thrones.”
Early on in the show, a giant Weirwood appeared onstage. You might think, “Wow, it’s crazy we’re starting off with a Weirwood tree. It’s like we’re about to go on one of Bran’s psychic journeys.”
Yeah, it is like that. Isn’t it?
Since Bran uses his otherworldly powers through the trees, starting the show this way seems to let the audience experience how the character would start a psychic trip.
2. Isaac Hempstead Wright was actually there.
Yup. Bran was in the building.
Hempstead Wright has been supportive of the show since the beginning, helping to announce the concert back in August 2016. At the time, we thought, “Oh, this is cool, but they probably could’ve had any actor help announce it.”
After witnessing how much the show appears to be Bran’s experience, it makes sense. Chatting before the show, the actor told HuffPost how excited he was to finally see it.
“About six months ago, [Ramin] told me about this amazing idea he had to put on this big show with all the music from the show and showed me the concept art from it, and it looks exactly like it does now,” said Hempstead Wright.
The actor also joined Djawadi onstage to help start things off.
There’s Bran “raisin” the roof.
3. Like Bran’s visions, the concert treats you to glimpses of the world of Westeros throughout the night.
There’s the Iron Throne ...
People shouting “Mhysa” ...
You’ll hear “Light of the Seven” ...
Dragons are everywhere ...
And there’s even a tiny peek at the future with a Season 7 production video ...
4. The show was designed to be immersive. Like Bran, you are the Three-eyed Raven.
On the experience, Djawadi told us, “It’s just that whole idea of the immersiveness and pushing to something new. It’s really working, and the audience really picks that up. And the compliments [of], ‘Oh my God! I want to go back and watch Seasons 1 thru 6 again.’ That whole reliving the show is how I’ve always described it.”
Whether you view the show as Bran’s psychic journey or you just want to enjoy the most elaborate “Game of Thrones” recap ever, this concert is so hot it’ll make a Drogon wanna retire, man.
”The Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience” is on tour through April 2.
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