Chicago, IL · punk · emo · dark pop-punk

Alkaline Trio

2 upcoming festivals

Chicago's heart-skull institution — graveyard romance in three chords, with Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano trading morbid valentines across two-plus decades of dark pop-punk.

Alkaline Trio formed in Chicago in the mid-1990s around singer-guitarist Matt Skiba, with bassist Dan Andriano joining shortly after and sharing lead vocals ever since. Derek Grant spent many years on drums. The band's logo, a heart with a skull inside it, has become one of the more recognisable emblems in punk.

Their music pairs fast, hook-driven punk with lyrics steeped in gallows humour, addiction, occult imagery and failed romance — a combination that set them apart from sunnier pop-punk contemporaries. Skiba's rasp and Andriano's warmer voice trade off across the catalogue, and the songs are typically short, melodic and darkly funny. Skiba also spent several years performing with Blink-182.

punkemodark pop-punk