After a couple attempts, the Alkaline Trio finally clicked for me in 2003 when I purchased their album Good Mourning on a whim. It must’ve been the perfect time to find them as I was in the middle of breaking up with my first girlfriend, even if I didn’t know that’s what was happening at the time. As I transitioned back into being single with these residual feelings, I devoured the band’s discography. Working my way backward, it didn’t take long for me to get to Maybe I’ll Catch Fire.
Released on March 14, 2000, Maybe I’ll Catch Fire progresses the sound Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano had been cultivating in the previous years riding on the success of 1998’s Goddamnit and the EPs, For Your Lungs Only and I Lied My Face Off. The band’s sound, specifically Matt Skiba’s guitar, had evolved in the time between the release of Goddamnit and Maybe I’ll Catch Fire. The clean tone seemed to have a little more bite to it while the distorted guitars took a chunk out of you. If Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus and Tom Delonge are masters at using gross-out humor with their songs, Matt Skiba was just as good at using dark imagery to convey the same themes of love, loss, and loneliness. There was always this debate on whether the Alkaline Trio is punk or emo, with some people even considering the band to be horror punk. To be honest, either of the genres fit. I used to say they were the Misfits if they wrote pop punk, but that’s wrong for a multitude of reasons. While dark imagery is used in both Skiba’s and Glenn Danzig’s lyrics, it’s used differently with each band. I would chalk Skiba’s lyrics as Gothic in the traditional literary sense of the word. I feel like they have more in common with Edgar Allan Poe and Mary Shelley than the Misfit’s B-movie nightmares.
Maybe I’ll Catch Fire kicks off with “Keep ‘Em Coming,” a song about the things we do to get over someone, whether it’s your art or work. I have to say there’s also something to be said about a song that makes a reference to the Dead Milkmen, especially a deep cut like the Bleach Boys. “Madam Me” is another Matt Skiba song about being frustrated in a relationship with someone just as stubborn as you are and the cycle of staying in the same misery day after day. It’s here the album takes a turn in an optimistic direction with the Dan Andriano song, “You’ve Got So Far To Go.” I have friends who used to complain about Dan’s contributions to the Alkaline Trio albums, but I can’t find any flaws in this song. Living in a time where a lot of pop-punk didn’t age too well, this song is a good argument to counter those assumptions. Its catchy bass line and Skiba’s clean guitar verses paired with Andriano’s sweet but humbling lyrics make this one of my favorite Alkaline Trio songs without having to go to a dark place.
I initially interpreted the next song, “Fuck You, Aurora,” incorrectly. Was it about a girl named Aurora? Was she an ex? Was she in a car accident? Was Aurora the model of the car? The lyric, “You won’t catch me behind the wheel of a Chrysler ever again,” would have made sense if the Aurora wasn’t an Oldsmobile. The one thing I did get right was I figured out that Aurora was a place. Wayne’s World had taught me that Aurora, IL was a suburb outside of Chicago. Matt wrote the song about losing contact with a friend who had moved to a small town. I didn’t look up the meaning of the song for a long time because I liked the mystery of it. It felt ambiguous to me. I wasn’t sure if there was some triple meaning, but really I just overthought the whole thing.
Dan’s songs on the record are probably my favorite of his in general, which includes “She Took Him To The Lake” and the album title song, “Maybe I’ll Catch Fire.” Here, Dan contemplates the sins of his past and how maybe he’s burned more bridges than he thinks. Eventually, his actions will be his destruction, but, also, maybe the fire can cleanse him. It’s a kind of anti-thesis of “You’ve Got So Far To Go.” The Yin and Yang of it all. Different sides and emotions which can almost be a point for trying to pinhole Alkaline Trio as an Emo band.
Matt Skiba’s “Radio” is not only one of the best closing tracks on an Alkaline Trio album but any album in general. It’s also one of his best. It’s a breakup song with some pretty visceral imagery contrasted with honest emotion: “Shaking like a dog shittin’ razorblades / Waking up next to nothing after dreaming of you and me / I’m waking up all alone, waking up so relieved.” It’s the chorus where Skiba finally explodes and reaches his wit’s end. Is it mature to ask someone to kill themselves? Probably not, but getting these bad thoughts out has to be therapeutic. The song mostly stays slow, but the feeling behind it builds and builds. Matt’s voice goes from calm to screaming by the end of the song.
Maybe I’ll Catch Fire was the end of an era for the Alkaline Trio. Shortly after the recording of the album, drummer Glenn Porter was replaced by drummer Mike Felumlee after the Smoking Popes disbanded. It was also their last record with Asian Man; if you don’t count their self-titled compilation that contained their demo and EPs released during their time on the label. The Alkaline Trio would release their next three albums on Vagrant Records, but also find drummer Derek Grant who would go on to solidify the band lineup for a little over twenty years. Maybe I’ll Catch Fire seemed to be the blueprint on what would be the band’s sound at least through 2005’s Crimson.
