Rage Against The Machine fans around the country had plenty of reasons to do just that overnight, after they were led astray by a misinformed local music journo who sent out a tweet triggering widespread rumours the hard rock band was set to tour the country in January.

As Music Feeds reports, rumours that Rage Against The Machine had a January tour in the works began circling after a local music journalist, who’s written for publications including FasterLouder and AMH Media, tweeted, “RATM sydney and melb dates leaked by FL then deleted? Were those 2016 SW dates too? Hmm..”

The only problem was that he was in fact acting on information from seven years ago. But the Twitterverse didn’t really seem to mind, immediately whipping itself into a frenzy over the misinformation.

More details were later “released”, including that the dates were slated for January and that a Sydney performance would take place on 22nd at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. See where this is going?

As some readers will recall, the Sydney Entertainment Centre is not only no longer referred to by that name, but the building formerly known as the Entertainment Centre will no longer exist in January. RATM did however play a gig at the Entertainment Centre on 22nd January… back in 2008.

By the time the journo had realised his mistake and issued a response, acknowledging that he’d mistakenly referenced an article from 2007, the rumour was already spreading like wildfire. Social media began buzzing with eager RATM fans asking Soundwave promoter AJ Maddah for a confirmation.

Their dreams were promptly crushed. As most RATM fans will be aware, the band have not played live since headlining their own LA Rising festival in Los Angeles back in 2011 and comments from drummer Brad Wilk suggest that was likely their last show.

Seriously, it’s almost like you can’t believe everything you read on the internet anymore.

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