Alkaline Trio
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50 free Alkaline Trio trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Alkaline Trio have spent decades turning bad nights, worse luck and dark humour into some of punk's most quotable choruses. Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano trade vocals over songs about love, loss and the macabre, and fans can recite every line. This quiz is built around the songs. It asks which track has which video, where a title came from, who guested on what, which cover versions the group recorded and what true stories sit behind the darkest lyrics. It also takes in the albums, the drummers who came and went, the labels and the side projects. It is written for anyone who knows the catalogue, from the early EPs onward, and for newer listeners who want a tour of it. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will leave with a few stories worth retelling.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which pop-punk band did Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio join in 2015 as the replacement for Tom DeLonge?
Blink-182
Blink-182 kept Skiba for seven years and two albums, California and Nine. He stepped aside in 2022 when DeLonge returned.
Q 02In which Midwestern city, home to Atlas Studios, did Alkaline Trio form in 1996?
Chicago
Chicago's punk scene shaped the band, who call local acts Screeching Weasel, Pegboy and Naked Raygun their forefathers. They cut much of their early material at Atlas, then returned for This Addiction.
Q 03What objects, each set to 6:00, appear three times on the cover of Alkaline Trio's Goddamnit?
Alarm clocks
Alarm clocks on the cover read 6:00 three times over to spell 666. Matt Skiba said that when his own went off at six, 'Goddamnit!' was always the first word out of his mouth.
Q 04Which rock star was set to play the devil in Alkaline Trio's 'All on Black' video before pulling out?
Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson was to gamble opposite Matt Skiba in a purgatory-themed casino. The location was already rented when he withdrew, and the disappointed band never filmed the video.
Q 05Alkaline Trio's 'Sadie' is about Susan Atkins, who took part in the 1969 killing of which actress?
Sharon Tate
Sharon Tate was among the victims of a California cult whose leader nicknamed Atkins 'Sadie Mae Glutz', giving the song its title. A friend of the band reads from Atkins's testimony on the track.
Q 06The video for Alkaline Trio's 'Time to Waste' was directed by Joe Hahn, the turntablist of which nu metal band?
Linkin Park
Linkin Park's Joe Hahn filmed the trio playing in a hangar amid lighting effects and projection screens. The 2005 single reached number 32 in the UK.
Q 07Which doomed 2017 event that Matt Skiba was booked to headline is a theme of Alkaline Trio's Is This Thing Cursed?
Fyre Festival
Fyre Festival, planned for the Bahamian island of Great Exuma, had billed Skiba's other group in its lineup. The 2018 album also takes on depression and the 2016 presidential election.
Q 08Alkaline Trio recorded their tenth album in 2023 at Studio 606, the studio of which rock frontman?
Dave Grohl
Dave Grohl's Studio 606 appealed because it was engineered for loud rock music. The trio built the songs from the ground up in one space, which Matt Skiba said had not happened since they started.
Q 09Which organization did Matt Skiba pay to join in Alkaline Trio's early days, calling its founder 'very punk rock'?
Church of Satan
Church of Satan membership appealed to Skiba because he saw its founder, Anton LaVey, as a punk figure. He also practices Transcendental Meditation.
Q 10Alkaline Trio's 'Help Me' was inspired by Control, a biopic about the singer of which English band?
Joy Division
Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis is the subject of Anton Corbijn's film, which Matt Skiba said captured his life beautifully. The single's sleeve pays tribute to the artwork for 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'.
Q 11Alkaline Trio's 'Dine, Dine My Darling' puns on a song by which punk band founded by Glenn Danzig?
Misfits
Misfits recorded 'Die, Die My Darling', and Dan Andriano borrowed the title with one letter changed. A reviewer called his song a wink to the band's forefathers.
Q 12In which Alkaline Trio video does a humiliated admirer take off his hat to reveal devil horns?
Stupid Kid
Stupid Kid was the band's first charting song, reaching number 53 in the UK. Its video ends with the teacher consumed by smoke after she writes 'you scare me' in the boy's yearbook.
Q 13Which opening track of From Here to Infirmary by Alkaline Trio features on the Watch Dogs video game soundtrack?
Private Eye
Q 21Which Alkaline Trio song was inspired by a soldier who took his own life after returning from Afghanistan?
The American Scream
The American Scream broke a long habit, because Matt Skiba said the band had been afraid to write overtly political songs. He wrote it after reading an article about the soldier.
Q 22Which Ben Affleck film inspired 'She Lied to the FBI', the opening track of Alkaline Trio's My Shame Is True?
The Town
The Town follows a Boston bank robber who falls for a victim of one of his raids while hiding who he is. Matt Skiba called the album a love letter and apology to an ex-girlfriend.
Q 23Which actress and former model appears in the 2013 video for Alkaline Trio's single 'I Wanna Be a Warhol'?
Milla Jovovich
Private Eye reached number 51 in the UK, two places above the album's first single. Its video was cut from concert footage shot with a stand-in touring drummer behind the kit.
Q 14Which 2003 Alkaline Trio single features backing vocals from Keith Morris, the original singer of Black Flag?
We've Had Enough
We've Had Enough became the band's first single to chart in the United States. In its video the members play ghosts who lead a boy to their skeletons under a basement floor.
Q 15Which Alkaline Trio single from Crimson appears in the racing game FlatOut 2 and reached number 30 in the UK?
Mercy Me
Mercy Me was the second of the album's singles and the highest-placed of them in Britain. It later returned as downloadable content for Rock Band 4.
Q 16Which Crimson single's video shows Alkaline Trio playing in a circus alongside acrobats and contortionists?
Burn
Burn has Dan Andriano miming on a double bass and Derek Grant drumming on pots and pans. A remix of the song landed on the Underworld: Evolution soundtrack.
Q 17Alkaline Trio's 'Prevent This Tragedy' concerns three teenagers convicted over 1993 murders in which Arkansas city?
West Memphis
The West Memphis Three, as the teenagers became known, drew wide support from musicians. Matt Skiba corresponded with Damien Echols, the only one of them sentenced to death.
Q 18Which reality TV star plays the damsel tied to a locomotive in Alkaline Trio's steampunk video for 'Help Me'?
Kat Von D
Kat Von D is rescued by Matt Skiba, who swoops in wearing a jet pack as two locomotives head for a collision. The clip leans heavily on computer-generated imagery.
Q 19Which drug does Alkaline Trio's 'This Addiction', the opening track of their 2010 album, use as a metaphor for love?
Heroin
Heroin and methadone dependence stand in for love in the lyric. Matt Skiba said he was struck by how many unhappy people cannot shake or fix their relationships.
Q 20Which David Lynch film influenced 'Dorothy', a song on Alkaline Trio's album This Addiction?
Blue Velvet
Blue Velvet has Isabella Rossellini as a troubled lounge singer named Dorothy Vallens. Matt Skiba said the song borrows her story as a metaphor for someone and something else.
Milla Jovovich stars in the clip for the lead single from My Shame Is True. The studio recording also features backing vocals from Brendan Kelly of The Lawrence Arms.
Q 24Alkaline Trio's 'Blackbird' takes its name from which gangster's pet name for his girlfriend in Public Enemies?
John Dillinger
John Dillinger calls Billie Frechette his 'blackbird' in the film. Matt Skiba replaced Dan Andriano's political lyrics with words about a woman he considered a great love of his life.
Q 25Which closing track of Alkaline Trio's Maybe I'll Catch Fire did Hot Water Music cover on a 2002 split EP?
Radio
Radio was one of two songs the Florida band took on for the Jade Tree release, alongside 'Bleeder'. Alkaline Trio returned the favour with a version of 'Rooftops'.
Q 26Alkaline Trio's 'Exploding Boy', from their self-titled 2000 compilation, covers a song by which English band?
The Cure
The Cure are a touchstone for the trio's gothic side, and Matt Skiba calls himself a big fan. The cover first surfaced on a 1999 compilation called Pocket Bomb.
Q 27The B-side of Alkaline Trio's 'Help Me' single is a cover of 'Wake Up Exhausted' by which Canadian duo?
Tegan and Sara
Tegan and Sara released the original in 2004, and the trio cut their version in St. Augustine, Florida, apart from the album sessions. It came on a free seven-inch with vinyl pre-orders of Agony & Irony.
Q 28Which mostly acoustic 2011 Alkaline Trio album marked their fifteenth anniversary and includes a Violent Femmes cover?
Damnesia
Damnesia reworks fan favourites in a semi-unplugged format and adds two new songs. The Violent Femmes number is 'I Held Her in My Arms'.
Q 29The 'Metro' that Alkaline Trio covered as a B-side was a 1981 song by which Los Angeles new wave band?
Berlin
Berlin, fronted by Terri Nunn, released 'The Metro' five years before 'Take My Breath Away' topped the charts. The trio's version also appears on their rarities set Remains.
Q 30Alkaline Trio's album title My Shame Is True nods to My Aim Is True, the debut by which English songwriter?
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello's debut lent its title to a record Matt Skiba wrote about a break-up, and he said afterwards that the album brought the couple back together.