Bootleg Pack Rats: Classic or Dud?

They scare me a little, but it's fascinating. It's this weird level of participatory fandom where the urge to relate to the material so far surpasses the amount of material out there that the people basically appoint themselves the bands' unofficial archivists, which is just amazing -- that and the standard obsessive and/or competitive-collective impulse. I dunno, with some bands this is simply part of the fan culture -- the ones that get me are the people who do this for bands where it's not at all usual or encouraged. (I imagine in many cases the bands themselves would be horrified to see people's collections.)

It's also a very rock trope, since there tends to be this elevation of the live show to some high ritualized mythical status.