Bankai kills Vancouver

The progress so far

1. 8th AprilSuccess. I toured all the way across Canada, the tour broke even and I've had the time of my life. Met some amazing people, played with some terrifyingly talented DJs. There'll be some downtime and then I'll be throwing up pictures, videos and lots more info. Phew. Thank you Canada, I'm going to miss you.
2. 26th on...... things got busy. Very busy. Follow on twitter or facebook to stay up to date... eek! :)
3. 25th FebAbout 6-7 hours through the rockies (fog + giant mountains, woah) crammed in a car with Brendan and Pat the drummer deposits me in Calgary. Went to the 'Ship & Anchor' pub last night. It's great to see the other hemisphere has the same fixie-riding indie rock wankers killing it on stage. The marked difference is the AMAZING amount of boutique beers on tap, there was like 30. Wtfmate.
4. 24th FebWe've met some seriously fantastic people. Didn't expect this little show on the side of Big White to be so good, but it was. Joe is a dude and has a HUGE house in Kelowna and fantastic dreads. Snowboarding was awesome. Today we said goodbye to Euna, Tucker and Mark. So sad. Everyone has finally wound down and is sitting bleary eyed in low gear. Tomorrow we start the slow trek all the way across to Toronto...
5. 22nd FebLeft last night at half past midnight to come to Kelowna. Saying bye to Matty and Gabe was weird; such fast friends disappearing so quickly. The last few half week has been a blur. Matty was amazing, the rave was killer. Euna and Mark are both freakin great DJs. Made a bunch of tees and badges...
6. 19th FebWe have 7 people all crammed into @mattymc99's pad in downtown Vancouver. The olympics are MENTAL and I'm convinced that all Canadians are batshit insane. Done absolutely no prep for shows and far too much drinking. Matty happens to be a complete legend. Everyone is full to the brim with hangover.
7. 18th FebThey really do say 'eh' a lot.
8. 16th, later.Flew to LAX, saw an amazing giant fat woman with inch-long faux-fingernails eating a burger. The burger had a croissant in the place of a bun (because it was breakfast time). Met 'Mindy' and 'Daisy', girlfriends of Marines who "believed in God, but still sucked cock" on the plane. Bought a 'small' latte from Starbucks, containing about half a litre of milk. Found out one of my core pieces of gear (the MOTU) is broken. Hung with Gabe from Cali. Gabe is GREAT, coming all the way from cali to see the show, woah.
9. 16th FebIt begins.
10. 24th JanMinisite Launched.
11. 23th JanRight, so I've been a lazy bastard and I haven't updated this for ages. I've been busy.
    • Hooked up with New York's Bearbot for a bunch of the shows.
    • Confirmed a 1,300 capacity rave, with Bearbot + Bankai headlining the electro stage.
    • 8 dates confirmed across Canada + probably 3-4 more waiting on the wings.
    • Brendan, aka Beautiful Unicorn is managing logistics, bookings, accom and a whole shitload of the booking stuff. He's AMAZING.
    • Blogs are posting interviews, newspapers and radios will be speaking to us during the tour.
    • Tied down hyper-talented Canadian Fiona Staples to do character art. Shit is bananas [pic].
    • There is a crew of people talking about coming the 4,000km from Detroit and another crew from Cali. To Vancouver. Wow.
    This just got bigger than just little ol' Vancouver.
12. 6th JanDouble Matt action! Two Matthews from the US rock 35 and 50 each. Movement on th gigs front... updates soon. If you are on twatter, follow @willdayble for the latest!.
13. 2nd Janthesixtyone coughs up another 30 bucks. Kent from Australia joins in.
14. 16th DecZico heads up a growing list of actual Canadians on the shareholder list. Woot. :D
15. 12th DecChapel just upped the freakin ante with another $70, total of ... $223CAD. Wow.
16. 10th DecLooks like 20th for Vancouver. Confirmation soon. $30 and love from Niels in Vancouver.
17. 2th Dec 09In talks with kids in Montreal, Vancouver rave is being sorted, NY with goddamn motherfucking Bearbot and Hot Bitch Arsenal in the works.
18. 25th Nov 09Duncan from Victoria in Canada, $30. Yes. :D
19. 23th Nov 09After a lull, shawn in Toronto rocks $26.06 (weird number eh?)
20. 17th Nov 09Eric, another Aussie, with 50...
21. 13th Nov 0935! From Kate! Kate is Great!
22. 11th Nov 09Another 25 from Chris. Kazam! :D
23. 9th Nov 09Woah, Josh just threw *another* 50 on the pile, making him $202, single highest contribution from one person. VERY close 2nd is James, on $200.01. Woah.
24. 5th Nov 09First payment from T61 mp3 sales pushes us over the $1.5K mark.
25. 5th Nov 09I'm starting to think this should be a US tour, another American, Rob, with $75...
26. 3rd Nov 09Another James, from the US with another $50. Smashing. ^_^
27. 2nd Nov 09Derek from DUBAI. Freakin Dubai! And freakin $150. The dude's a killer.
28. 1st Nov 09James, Canada, one of the original people to come up with the crowdsourced touring idea: $115CAD. Killer. :D
29. 30th Oct 09Our biggest (joint) contributor yet, Audrey and Michael from Melbourne, at a joint $195CAD, pushing us past the $1K mark!
30. 27th Oct 09Holy fuck Chapel! Look what he did. Blimey.
31. 24th Oct 09Official Bankai Merch is UP, bitches.
32. 23th Oct 09PayPal balance: $734 CAD. Not quite a plane ticket yet... damn nice chunk in the right direction though.
33. 22th Oct 093 days, $650 paypal'd. Getting adventurous, the plan is now to go from Toronto, down to Boston, back into Canada, Calgary, bunch of other cities, all across Canada and into Vancouver for ze grand finale. This is getting exciting.
34. 21th Oct 092 days, about $300 cash paypal'd.
35. 19th Oct 09Contribute button is online. Here we go.
36. 15th Oct 09Hotshotjosh, the badass, comes in at $150. Phwoar.
37. 8th Oct 09Sales from T61 go up to $330.
38. 1st Oct 09Chapel from T61 throws up bankai.spreadshirt.com, because he's awesome.
39. 12th Sep 09Zomg Michael from Melbourne pushes us over $1.5K
40. 12th Sep 09Justin's on board...
41. 11th Sep 09Kent is not only a really great guy, he nudges us just past the $1.4K mark.
42. 7th Sep 09Logan from Toronto tenderly pushes it to just shy of $1.4K
43. 5th Sep 09Rory from Perth, $50. Kazam.
44. 4th Sep 09NakedJake drops $25 via T61, pushing the T61 input to $270 and total to $1.3K.
45. 30th Aug 09Limpet's in. $1,257.66 now.
46. 28th Aug 09Spinladen hits irc and talks about a possible US leg to the tour. Kate joins in, total reaches $1,232.66, well over half way.
47. 27th Aug 09Chapel, not to be outdone, ups to $111.12. Joe and Jake pledge.
48. 26th Aug 09Thecolts, lucas and matty push it up to $1011.11 (with matty pledging $111.11 just to be difficult)
49. 25th Aug 09Chapel, Sloshy, Rob, Jride and Jeffrey pledge. Including T61 mp3 sales, total hits $765.
50. 24th Aug 09I put up bankai.fm/vancouver. That same day Derek, Umdesch, QuixoticNeurotic and Nivekastoreth pledge $280 between them.
51. Augustish 09More excellent dudes and babes from the freaks talk on irc more seriously about a Bankai tour.
52. 12th Aug 09DerekRobson talks about knowing some promoters, requests a mix [mp3] to show around.
53. 28th July 09 Email recieved from 'thecolts', floating the idea of a tour... “Hey Will, My name is Jon, I am thecolts on T61, just thought I would drop you a line and let you know that Jride and I have been trying to set up a grass roots campaign to organize a show for you and possibly some other Electro Freak artists in Vancouver, we are still very much in the early stages, we thought we would have received a better response from the Vancouver freaks, but we are going to keep trying and we will keep you posted. Have a great day.