Anchorage Daily News 09/04/07

All-Girl Band Wows Sluicebox Crowd
Posted by arts_reviews


LULU AND THE AQUA NETS: Performing at the Alaska State Fair on Sept. 1 

Long-time Alaska performers LuLu and the Aqua Nets graced the Sluicebox 
Stage at the Alaska State Fair Saturday afternoon. The all-girl trio 
opened with the Young Rascal's version of "Good Lovin'" to an excited 
capacity crowd. With LuLu quipping, "I've had four husbands... well 
two of them were mine," the band payed tribute to girl groups of the 
past. 

The Aqua Nets — LuLu Small-guitar-lead vocals, Patti Greene-Bass/vocals 
and drummer/vocalist Sandy Heikes — sparkled effortlessly through 
"Going To The Chapel" and "My Boyfriend's Back" with gorgeous, 
impossibly tight three-part harmonies.

Performing solo guitar a capella with LuLu's signature Aqua Net 
hairspray can as slide, the audience standing reverently, hand over 
heart, sang the National Anthem.

Shifting gears, Small, a born entertainer, powerfully paved her vocal 
way through the Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" while giving Grace 
Slick her pink slip.

As any veteran entertainer can tell you, during a show, some liquored 
up bubba inevitably shouts out a request for Lynyrd Skynyrd's 
"Freebird." Anticipating that factor, The Aqua Nets created The "Dead 
Elvis Freebird Polka." Featuring Lulu in Elvis voice, The Aqua Nets 
belted out Freebird with a rapturous polka beat stunning the giggling 
audience.

Blazing through LuLu's self-penned anthem "Rockin' in the Last 
Frontier," from her latest solo release, "Lulapalooza," the stunned 
crowd feverishly banged their heads just in time for a full throttle 
dose of ZZ Top's "La Grange." A song generally foreign to female bands, 
the crowd looked shocked by the growling dead-on Billy Gibbons vocal 
and guitar impersonation.

Moving rapid fire through classics, "Heard it Through the Grapevine" 
and Free's "Alright Now," the band had the crowd in the palm of their 
hands.

Playing the audience's heart-strings, the now-serious AQ's performed an 
emotional rendition of the Beatle's "With a Little Help From My 
Friends," complete with Joe Cocker hand gestures, to a laughing and 
tear-soaked crowd.

The encore reflected both the band's and crowd's feelings of closing 
fair moments, with band and crowd singing "Happy Trails" to a massive 
standing ovation.


CREDIT: Leland Smith is an Anchorage performer and educator.