Fourteen years after their last proper run, Hole may finally be circling back.
On Tuesday, Courtney Love set the internet buzzing after posting a video montage of former bandmate Melissa Auf der Maur to Instagram, soundtracked by Hole’s 1998 anthem “Malibu.” The caption was as subtle as a feedback-drenched chorus: “So do we tell the kids about the tour @xmadmx?”I’l
Auf der Maur replied in the comments, “It starts with eternal love…,” prompting Love to respond with a characteristically poetic stream of imagery: “and cycles through rage, loss, ecstasy, sex, death, poetry, filth, childbirth, the forest, the river the sea the sea… & ends with love.”
For a band whose mythology is built on volatility, catharsis, and reinvention, the exchange felt less like a joke and more like a flare shot into the sky.
Hole haven’t mounted a full tour since the early 2010s. While the band briefly reunited during that period, Auf der Maur was not part of the lineup, aside from a one-off appearance in 2012. She hasn’t properly toured with the group since the late 1990s.
Auf der Maur originally joined Hole in 1994 following the death of bassist Kristen Pfaff. She went on to play on 1998’s Celebrity Skin, the band’s most commercially successful album, before departing in 1999. She later joined The Smashing Pumpkins and built a multifaceted career spanning solo music, photography, and filmmaking.
Love, meanwhile, has spent the past decade oscillating between music, acting, visual art, and cultural commentary. In 2021, she flatly dismissed the possibility of a proper Hole reunion, telling Vogue, “No, absolutely not… It’s just not gonna happen.” That makes this week’s tease feel all the more seismic.
The potential reunion arrives at a particularly strategic moment.
Auf der Maur is set to release her autobiography, Even the Good Girls Will Cry: A 90s Rock Memoir, later this month. At the same time, Love’s documentary Antiheroine recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, reintroducing her story — unfiltered and unapologetic — to a new generation.
Love also hinted in Instagram comments at new solo material, referencing her long-awaited second solo album Died Blonde and noting “Died Blonde 2026 new songs. Not 94.” Whether that signals parallel projects or a full-scale Hole revival remains to be seen.
In an era where ‘90s alternative has been steadily reclaimed by younger audiences — from festival lineups to TikTok rediscoveries — a Hole reunion wouldn’t just be nostalgic fan service. It would be a reclamation of one of the most combustible, influential bands of the grunge era.
Live Through This remains one of the defining albums of 1994, while Celebrity Skin showcased a sharpened, glam-inflected evolution that still reverberates through modern alt-rock. A tour featuring Love and Auf der Maur together again would bridge those eras — the raw and the refined — in real time.
For now, there are no confirmed dates, venues, or ticket links. Just a caption. A comment. A song from 1998 drifting through Instagram.
But sometimes, in rock and roll, that’s how it starts.
