The Ché Café Benefit Blog has raised approximately $2,000 toward its goal of saving the Che Cafe via benefit t-shirt sales.

The Ché Café currently faces closure if they fail to raise $12,000 to pay off insurance debts. Ché Café enthusiasts are utilizing the Ché Café Benefit Blog to raise the money necessary to make the payment.

The t-shirts made exclusively for the Che Cafe by the Hellfish Family — a merchandise company for Southern California bands — feature the hardcore bands Bane, Unbroken and Seven Generations. All profits from the $13 shirts go directly to the Ché.

The band Bane created the first t-shirt design, which was available for purchase at the Ché during Bane’s show on Oct. 24. It is also available online at the Hellfish Family website.

“[Hellfish] will be printing these shirts on demand, so as they are ordered, they will be printed,” Ché Café Benefit Blog founder Jesse Kranzler said.

The hardcore bands Unbroken and Seven Generations will also be releasing Ché Café Benefit t-shirts for purchase directly from the Hellfish Family.

“I didn’t think it was in the DIY interest of the Ché to get corporate support,” Kranzler said. “But I felt this would be in the DIY spirit of the Ché.”

The Ché Café Benefit Blog will move into the second phase of fundraising — the Ché Benefit Festival from Jan. 6 to Jan. 8. The lineup will be released on Nov. 15.

“All of the bands have agreed to play for free, we’re just covering expenses for gas,” Kranzler said. “For the most part, everything is going to the Ché. We’re also doing a benefit with a [merchandise] company [at the event].”

A CD is to be released — with exclusive Ché Café Benefit tracks — in early 2012.

“Hopefully, the festival will [raise] enough to keep [the Ché] going, but [the Benefit CD] will be a more steady, long-lasting form of income for them,” Kranzler said.