I discovered Phish live with the bonus tracks from Junta. They where cool and funny (Icculus !!) or barly listenable (Union Federal). Anyway, when I found A Live One in the music store of the Pont de la Machine in Geneva (unfortunatly closed now), I made my parents buy it to me for Christmas without a question !
Of course, it was a life-changing experience.
I got Slip Stitch and Pass and Hampton Comes Alive from the same store in a span of maybe 2 years.
I remember listening to A Live One in front of my computer with my brother playing Final Fantasy VII by my side. Taken by the music, I used to "play the keyboard" and getting my brother upset.
I first listened to Slip Stitch and Pass in the train from Geneva to Valence, right after buying it with my birthday money. It stayed in my player for several month.
Hampton Comes Alive was also a really great experience. I listened to it a lot while playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 on my computer.
I bought the other boxset several years later, when they have been respectively released. Each time I could, I pre-ordered the release to grab the bonus CD that came with it. The Left Nuts CD was given with the Walnut Creek DVD.
As a side note, I must admit that I had some let down with some of the releases. While the packaging used to bee very cool (Hampton Comes Alive especially), the recent ones are very cheap-looking (Vegas 96 or At the Roxy). But more important, the sound quality is really bad in At the Roxy. The voices have a reverb effect that too annoying and just ruins the vibe ! Too bad as I was really waiting for this multi-show release.
Nevertheless, I have found memories of listening to it while making levels in Little Big Planet on my PS3. By the way, I have a project for several month to do some Phish-related levels. I could even mix that with a contest to make you win some rare Phish-related CDs, who knows...
