The Never Ending Pool

do you,

A, collect every boot available

OR

B, only the best ?

over the last few months i've been sorting out my boots and discovered i've so many poor quality sounding shows.I've threw them away as i'll probably never listen to them.The only guide ive used for quality reference is bobsboots.

I guess I'm somewhere in between. I don't collect (i.e, download) shows if I see comments about poor quality, but if someone says the sound is "pretty good" and it's a show with an interesting setlist, or a show that fills a gap in the chronology of my collection, I will still download a copy. If I listen to a show (I listen to all of my shows at least once), and the sound isn't very good, I will make a comment "for the record," but I don't throw any of them away, just in case I or someone else "needs" a show or a track from a show that can't be found from a better source.

If you're talking about buying commercial boots, forget what I just said. I've never bought one.

I get my hands on whatever I can. A completest one might say. Especially dealing with the N.E.T.

I wouldn't use bobsboots as a "quality reference" I find them highly unreliable

Best tapers in my humble opinion are,

Soomlos
Unwanted Man
Legendary taper D
CB for older recordings

CB and taper D are maybe one and the same

Some musthaves

Torino 87
Modena 87
Rotterdam 87, includes superb african tribal version of Slow Train

Hammersmith 90 and Paris 90
Madison 91
Binghamton 92, not a perfect recording but astounding performance
Fifth Time Around, London 13th Feb 93
Manchester 5th Apr 95
Mannheim 96
Cardiff 97
Rostock 98
Hamburg 98
Glasgow 98
London 98
All unwanted man recordings of 99
Frankfurt 00
Munster 00

Recent recordings,
Boston run 2005

Dublin 2005, both nights by soomlos
Stockton 2006, both soomlos and schubert remaster
2007, all unwanted man recordings
2008, Salzburg, tom moore recording, Ostrava, Bach recording, Vienna, del wal recording

we should do a NEP style bobsboots.We'd all have an imput on quality etc, what do you think ? good idea ? It could be in it;s own section, it would just have to be modded so people don't spam on it.

i go by the tour at the time. for example, i have every 1988 show since i love that tour. every show from rolling thunder 75 and 76, every australian/nz show.

i have a total of about 1800, most of which i wont listen to again!

Completist.

edizsak wrote:

QUOTE:
Completist.

I used to be a completist.
To be honest, I thought Bob's concert career was nearing its end, so I wanted to grab everything possible.

Now that he looks like carrying on for years, I have become much more selective.

I'm still really only building a collection, and the way I do it is if I hear a show from a particular tour that I think sounds great (eg Oberhausen in April 2002), I download a few either side of that date, and if these are all great too, I continue on and on, spreading out within the one tour.
I also try to make sure I get the shows I've been to. And on this note, does anyone have a working link for Kilkenny, Ireland in 2006? The rapidshare links dont work. Thanks

I seen to collect boots of the shows I've attended.

Completist... but still working on it. I started like most everyone does... the shows I've attended, your favorite years etc. Then you become obsessed. It sure is fun! 2500 or so and counting.
Who wants to trade?

I've gotten bored with it, most of the ones I want I already have, I only download the best recordings of recent shows now but rarely listen to them because the performances are so poor. When I went to shows ten years ago all my friends and family would say Bob was past his best and I used to get angry when I read negative reviews of Bob in the media because they were blatantly untrue, I love early 93 and mid 92 for instance, I also think the early 91 shows are underrated. now I get angry when I read positive reviews in the media of shows over the past 3 years because they are blatantly untrue, the reason I got into Bob and would look forward to going to his shows is because he wasn't a nostalgia act, he would reinvent the songs and put his heart and soul into them for the most part, today he is a nostalgia act, nothing more, nothing less.

Having too many shows is unhealthy because it is easier to miss those great shows, its the looking for a needle in a haystack syndrome

LostJohn wrote:

QUOTE:
I get my hands on whatever I can. A completest one might say. Especially dealing with the N.E.T.

my goal to have at least 1 copy of every NET show .sad innit?

When I was younger and had way more time on my hands, I made it a point to get as many bootlegs as I could. These days, I've barely listened to anything from the past couple of years, and I only have the faintest idea what the current band sounds like. I have, however, made it a point to listen to as many of the highest-regarded shows out there, just so I can form my own opinions and satisfy my curiosity. I guess that's a bit myopic, since I tend to miss what people would consider a hidden gem, but for the most part I find that the big shows tend to be representative. I've heard my share of '98 shows, but (IMO, of course) San Jose is really the one I need.