The first in Wabana's "reissue the bootleg" campaign, Born to be Wet and Wild in the USA 2000 collects segments of three performances from their 2000 US tour, originally issued on a limited LP, and now remastered for convenient digital listening. Touchdowns by the cosmic travelers were recorded in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Seattle, and Wabana is the medium for their widespread transmittance to audiences everywhere.
Born to be Wild begins with the incendiary "Acid Takion 2000," which, after a lengthy bit of wispy synth warm-up, sets off on a destructive course. The recording sounds distant, but it does little to stave off the frantic offensive of the quintet’s holy psychedelic crusade. The track, from the band’s 2000 Pataphisical Freakout MU!! release, is a thrust of hyperkinetic psych so propulsive, it's a wonder the band's able to slow it to a stop after only seven minutes. "La Novia," from the Eclipse release of the same name, has a hard time following up "Acid Takion 2000," hindered by low fidelity that leaves it in the mud and sections of the rather limp style of exploration that can make Acid Mothers Temple far less far-out at times. Unfortunately, "La Novia" represents a turn for the worse in sound quality, and the album's fidelity sometimes ensnares Acid Mothers Temple's extraterrestrial journey, and pulls it soberingly earthward. "Pink Lady Lemonade," a placid affair, isn’t one of the band’s strongest songs, and suffers through the distorted mix, and a version of "Speed Guru," which could be electrifying, becomes muddled and obscured in moments of high activity, and while this additional noise might make the recording more interesting to some listeners, it surely doesn’t do the song justice. "God Bless AMT" is subject to more of the same, but it's so short, it seems to matter less.
Wabana's quest in this series of CDs is a laudable one, and Acid Mothers Temple are certainly a band whose live shows elicit almost religious responses from some fans. But Born to be Wild in the USA 2000 doesn’t live up to its potential, hampered by sound quality that the music, no matter how energetic, can't always surmount.
