Here are a couple of advance photos from the X-Fest concert last weekend at Huntington’s Harris Riverfront Park, featuring Seether, Crossfade and a host of other national and local bands. Gatecrasher photog Stephen Ross was there and caught some pictures on and off the stage. Stay tuned for more for a full ride of them Snapshows.

Every year, on the last day of the Sternwheel Regatta, it’s time for a bubblebath. That’s when Huck Finn’s Restaurant and Bar on U.S. Route 25 East in Dunbar, turns on its bubble machine for an end-of-regatta, bubbleapalooza. Gatecrasher photog Stephen Ross was there this year when the bubbles started popping and he started snapping. See his Snapshow of the event right here.

Bret Michaels, ex-Poison frontman, never wants for attention. He has some here backstage at the Charleston Sternwheel Regatta, which took place in downtown Charleston, Aug. 31 to Sept. 6. See more shots of Michaels, girl-less and on-stage during his Regatta show, as well as photos of Patti Loveless, Loverboy, the Regatta karoake contest and more in the gazz Snapshows section. Photo by Stephen Ross.

.
When Don Vito and Ryan Dunn arrived at Huntington’s Monkey Bar on Aug. 27, there was plenty of idiocy to go around. Vito and Dunn are milking their 15 minutes of fame for all it’s worth (Dunn was occasionally seen on MTV’s “Jackass” and more recently both were on the spinoff, “Viva la Bam“).

After keeping the crowd waiting for more than an hour before stepping off their luxury tour bus, the pair got audience members to participate in a variety of stunts with no purpose, save humiliation–true to the tried and true “Jackass” form. They gave some poor guy a drunken haircut (see first photo), they kicked another in his privates, gave a “super wedgie” on a tripod to a third and had one woman from the audience lick Don Vito’s toes.

After about 40 minutes of the mindless acts, Dunn retired to the tour bus and Vito (see other photo) went to the bar to dole out shots and autographs. Later, on the bus, a drunken Vito, book-ended by two local ladies, told me several times: “This is the greatest job in the world,” and not much else. Then it was off to the airport for Vito who was due for an appearance at MTV’s Video Music Awards the next night. After witnessing the entertainment fiasco, I was reminded over and over again of the words of H.L. Mencken when he said: “No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.”

– Jeff Hanson; photos by Stephen Ross