Critical Bill Pack the Emerald Theatre for Second Annual Thanksgiving Show

For the second year in a row, local rap/rock group Critical Bill played a free Thanksgiving show at the Emerald Theatre Thursday night before a packed house.

The free show was easily the biggest local show of the year featuring five up and coming local bands along with national headliners Critical Bill.

The evening was kicked off by a performance from Christina Chriss, who sounds like a cross between Gwen Stefani and Lady GaGa.

The band presented a high energy mix of pop, rock and rap that included a cover of Lady GaGa's Poker Face.

The only problem with the set was that at times Chriss' voice got lost in the sounds of the rest of the band.

Progressive rock band Odayin was up next and they put on a solid set that included epic track Trials and Tribulations.

Next up was Stellar Drive who have recently become one of my favorite local bands. They opened a few months ago for another Critical Bill show and they blew me away.

The band knows how to rock and they once again entertained the growing crowd with heavy rock tracks like Bed of Nails and Wasted.

Next up was Band With No Name (BWNN) who are getting ready to release their first studio album Humanity with a release party at the Hayloft on December 12.

I had seen them before and wasn't too impressed but on Thursday they sounded more polished and ended up putting on a great performance that included fan favorite Criminal and new track I'm Your Enemy.

Windsor native Richy Nix was the final opener and he rocked the house out with his own unique mix of electronica/rap/metal/rock that included the highly requested 89x track In My Head. The song had the massive crowd singing and dancing along.

Finally, it was time for Critical Bill but before they took the stage, a video screen lowered to show the premiere of their new video Beam Me Up which is off of their forthcoming January release Underground Kingdom.

The band then took the stage along with some pole dancers and kicked into their last hit My Suicide.

Singer Powerdise took the time to wish the crowd a Happy Thanksgiving and thank all of their friends and family for coming out.

He went on to check out the set list in front of him but decided they weren't going to follow it and instead decided to perform their cover of Ludacris' Move Bitch, urging the crowd to go crazy for the mikes that were recording the show for a future live cd.

Critical Bill went on to perform hits like The Ride, The Shouting, Here I Am and This Is Critical and a great cover of Korn's Got The Life.

The band also performed three new tracks, the highlight of which was the hard core American Psycho.

The band ended their set with usual closer: their cover of House of Pain's Jump Around, where they invitied a number of ladies from the crowd to join them on stage.