Rage Against The Machine will never consider socially-distanced gigs, the band’s bassist Tim Commerford has said.

Discussing Rage Against The Machine’s planned 2020 tour dates, all of which were postponed due to coronavirus, Commerford said that “musicians got kicked to the curb” during the pandemic.

“It’s stressful for me, just because I look at Rage and go, like, ‘Fuck, we rely on an audience,’” he told TooFab. “You go to Rage shows to see the audience as much as to see the band, and we need that. We’re one of those bands that need that.”

He continued: “We’ll never be one of these sellouts that’s gonna go play a drive-in show or play a venue that holds 100,000 people and there’s only 10,000 people there. That’s bullshit. Rage will never do that. It’s not a good show unless the audience is going off too. It’s gotta be a shared experience.”

In March 2020 the band announced an initial postponement of what were due to be Rage’s first shows since 2011, and in May said that shows would not take place until 2021.

“Rage Against the Machine will commence our tour at such a time when we are confident it will be safe for our fans,” the band said on Instagram.

The band’s North American tour dates, with support from Run The Jewels, are currently still set to take place this June and run until August.

Earlier this week, meanwhile, Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello delivered the simplest of ripostes to a Twitter user who accused him of “white man privilege”.

“I’m not white,” the guitarist replied to a Twitter user who had criticised him for defending his friendship with Ted Nugent – despite his controversial right-wing views.