It was last July that Natalie Rizzo came up with the idea. Rizzo says she's “just a bartender” at Ray’s Golden Lion in Richland, but as anyone who’s ever frequented a bar knows, bartenders are counselors and friends, and they often have their fingers on the pulse of the community.
Last summer, Rizzo realized that people in the area were struggling. People were hungry.
FEED THE SCENE
In a phone interview, Rizzo told Tumbleweird, “I've just seen a lot of need in the community, and people don't really like to talk about it… I just wanted to do something really simple that can just help people, people to people, because that's really what it's all about.”
So, Rizzo approached her manager at Ray’s with her idea: What if they could help “Feed the Scene”? Rizzo explained how it works: “Basically, anyone who's already in our bar can pre-purchase a meal for someone, [then] they get 10% off of their own tab.” When a customer pays for one of these meals, the server prints off a ticket and posts it on a bulletin board inside the bar.
Rizzo said, “We want to make sure that people's dignity and respect stay intact. All they have to do to redeem them is come in, grab a ticket off the board, and bring it up to a bartender. It's super easy, no discrimination. We really just have a lot of love for people in our community. It's a really, really easy, simple way to just help someone help.”
Rizzo said she hadn’t realized how caring the punk community was when she began working at Ray’s. Rizzo is fairly new to the scene, and she realized she’s met some of the most incredible people there. “It's actually been a really amazing thing to watch. [Feed the Scene] is just such a passion project of love and caring that we get to do in our community. I'm blessed to work with wonderful people that just let me run with it.” Her bosses were immediately on board, and the customers were, as well. Rizzo said she added up the receipts since the program launched and they have had 100 FTS (Feed the Scene) meals purchased. With the average cost of a meal at about $20, that’s over $2000 dollars donated.
“People have just been really excited, and it's so easy: just buy a meal for someone in need. You're already out enjoying yourself. Might as well pay it forward.”
Rizzo’s manager created a QR code for anyone to purchase a meal for FTS from anywhere.
Rizzo followed up with us in an email to explain how it would work if someone couldn’t come into Ray’s in person:
It has to be during business hours so our POS system can print live. Our business hours are Wednesday 4pm to 10pm, Thursday 4pm to midnight, and Friday and Saturday 6pm to 1:30am. When a meal is purchased through the QR code, the customer will be asked to include their name for the order. The name is helpful but it is very important that they put FEED THE SCENE (or FTS) so we know that this is a meal to be donated, and not prepared immediately.
She added that buying an FTS meal this way, people wouldn’t be able to receive a discount on their own bill like they would in person. But it does make it very easy for everyone to participate!
Order a meal to help FEED THE SCENE!
Write FTS when you include a name for your order!
PUNKS WEAR BLXCK
Rizzo was also excited to tell Tumbleweird that she would have a table for FTS at the upcoming show PUNKS WEAR BLXCK at the Uptown Theatre on June 6. The show is being put on by local community promoter/event organizer Reign Darling along with IAMTOPP and Jang. Darling calls her promotion work a “community initiative” and refers to it as Darling’s Visions. We spoke to Darling in a phone interview on April 26.
Darling has been working event planning and promotion at Ray’s since the relaunch of the venue. Ray’s has been a center of local music for years, starting with the original ownership of the Chin family. The Chins owned the business for 52 years, and the music venue was a big part of the local music scene. Sadly, the business closed in 2015. Darling remembers growing up and going to the shows as a young teen. She said, “It's always had a huge place in my heart.”
(Read about Ray’s reopening in our 2023 article: ‘Ray’s Returns’!)
Darling said since she was involved in the music scene from such a young age, she was inspired by artists and musicians to do more in the Tri-Cities. She said, “One thing that I've always wanted to do is combine the hip-hop and rap and punk scene. I've always wanted them to combine together, because they have such an amazing drive and amazing creative flow.”
Now Darling and her event partners are putting on a big show at the Uptown Theatre. She envisions it becoming an annual event. Darling explained that PUNKS WEAR BLXCK is going to be a “fully immersive” show. She said that they are planning to do something like some previous shows that were held at the Uptown Theatre called Pineapple Island and Spooky Island, which Darling says were “iconic” and “inspiring.”
Darling wanted to emphasize that shows now are different from when she was a kid, when live music venues were a bit scary. Now, Darling said, the scene is different. Safer. At her shows, Darling makes sure to highlight groups helping in the community. At PUNKS WEAR BLXCK, she’s setting up a table for Feed the Scene, but highlighting people doing good in the community is not new to Darling:
I usually pick a couple different organizations that have tables or put up pamphlets at my event, but I always have at least one go on stage and talk to the community. That's what Feed the Scene is doing. [And] for every ticket sold, we're giving a certain percentage of that ticket to Feed the Scene, and we're also having a table there so that people can pre-purchase meals in advance.
PUNKS WEAR BLXCK is launching as both a clothing brand and a cultural movement rooted in Eastern Washington’s 509, built on a shared vision of uniting the region’s creative scenes.
Their debut event on June 6 at the Uptown Theatre in Richland marks the official launch, bringing things full circle to the place where BLXCKPUNKS first connected. The event reflects a rare, intentional effort to connect the entire 509.
Tumbleweird spoke with the founders of PUNKS WEAR BLXCK, the duo of IAMTOPP and Jang the Goon. IAMTOPP is originally from the Tri-Cities and was born into music. His father is a jazz musician, well known in the area as a member of Smooth as Jazz. IAMTOPP grew up in Pasco, going to live music shows and performing, and now lives as a professional, full-time artist. Jang said he grew up as a “military brat, but raised in Spokane.”
IAMTOPP talked about the origin story of their group: “We've been doing music as BLXCKPUNKS about a year and some change. Individually, we've been making music for ten years plus.”
The show they are putting on at the Uptown Theatre on June 6 will be an immersive experience, explained IAMTOPP. It is an off-shoot of their brand, their band, and their clothing line. IAMTOPP explained how the show came together:
We've been at this venue before in the past, as individuals … We've sold it out a few times. We did Pineapple Island [and] Jungle Island, with a few other local artists, as well. This is also where me and Jang met, I think seven years ago … at this venue. [It’s] a full circle moment.
IAMTOPP describes their music as a fusion of sorts. “It's like hip hop and like hardcore grunge, like trap music. And it's got this punk ethos to it. Definitely punk spirit; we definitely embody that. And when we perform live, we have a band with two guitars and a DJ.”
In Spokane, BLXCKPUNKS has been playing all the local venues. Jang said, “We hit the rounds. You know, we've hit the Big Dipper. We've done the Chameleon. It used to be the Lucky Lounge. We've hit the Knitting Factory a couple times.” Jang said that BLXCKPUNKS shows are “a unique experience.”
IAMTOPP and Jang both consider the Uptown Theatre a special place, and one in which they can make their shows immersive. IAMTOPP explained that there are not a lot of venues like the Uptown that have the capacity to offer the DIY takeover that they like to do as BLXCKPUNKS. IAMTOPP teased out some details about what to expect at the immersive show:
It’s definitely something that involves all the senses. I think immersive to me at least means … If you walk into this venue, does it feel like you're even in Tri-Cities anymore? You know, like when you look around and there's a whole theme. It's an entire experience. It's basically like a major festival. That's how we're perceiving it, and we want people to feel that way when they enter this experience. Even from the rollout, even from the tickets that we're selling, the type of promotion that we're doing … we want to bring people into our world … like [an] alternate universe.
He said they want people to walk in and say, “This is crazy! I've never experienced anything like this.” PUNKS WEAR BLXCK will also feature a collaboration with The Green Room Tattoo Lounge, Marcus Made It, Workaholics, and many more local businesses.
The BLXCKPUNKS are headlining the PUNKS WEAR BLXCK show, and bringing in local bands from the area: Heel Klick from Walla Walla, and A Quiet Life and The Velvet Helmets from the Tri-Cities, along with solo artist JOSIAHDAVIS. IAMTOPP said about the show: “[E]verybody's local. We want to make sure to get the whole lineup to be local.”
Jang added, “Another big point about this show was not only to do something big in the Tri-Cities, but to really connect the 509 area together.” He said that’s why they pulled people in from Walla Walla and Spokane. “We’re trying to really bridge that gap between everybody in our scenes.”
PUNKS WEAR BLXCK wants their show to be as accessible as possible, so they are keeping the tickets at a reasonable price so more people can come to the show. To help keep things affordable for everyone, they have signed on Zumiez to be a sponsor. But they also offer a premium VIP package!
At its core, this moment positions BLXCKPUNKS and PUNKS WEAR BLXCK as a driving force behind a growing regional movement, merging style, sound, and purpose. With plans to evolve into a yearly festival, June 6 is just the beginning.
Tickets are on sale at their web site: https://posh.vip/e/punks-wear-blxck
JUNE 6: PUNKS WEAR BLXCK is an all ages show
$15 General Admission, $60 VIP Tickets
