I still use Forte Agent to access a couple of newsgroups that I've visited regularly for years. They're both dying a slow death and what little traffic there is consists largely of spam and trolls. I have no idea if alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.bootlegs is still active. What sort of bootlegs are you looking for? There are still a few sites available where you can download for free live music bootlegs that are allowed by the artists, e.g. dimeadozen, etree.org. Some require an invite to join. I know for sure that dime is still very active with tons of stuff posted every day in all sorts of different genres.
