No holiday for busy, acclaimed Green Day

Green Day is back.

Although the "American Idiot" tour came to Everett last year, they're playing the Tacoma Dome on Monday. This week Green Day will fill its two-hour show mainly with songs from "American Idiot" — an album honored with awards throughout the year — and also play tunes such as "Longview," "Basket Case," "She" and "King for a Day" from earlier albums. Expect a few covers, too, like Tears for Fears' "Shout."

After 16 years and seven albums, lead singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool are enjoying critical and commercial success that equals — and even eclipses — any prior accolades.

Concert preview

Green Day and Jimmy Eat World, 7:30 p.m. Monday, Tacoma Dome, 2727 East D St., Tacoma; $39.50-$45 (206-628-0888, www.ticketmaster.com or www.hob.com; information, 253-272-3663, www.tacomadome.org, or www.greenday.com).

"American Idiot," a 57-minute self-proclaimed "punk-rock opera" was nominated for six Grammy Awards and the California band won Best Rock Album in February, later taking home seven MTV Video Music Awards, including the Viewer's Choice Award last month.

Honors aside, "American Idiot" also turned out to be one of the most popular CDs of the past year. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart and sold more than 4 million copies in the U.S. since its release last September. Three singles have also hit No. 1 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart. The band's biopic has just screened on VH-1's "Driven." And there are even reports that "American Idiot" may become a movie.

It was just a decade ago that Green Day sang about masturbating while watching TV and "not growing up" in their breakthrough album, 1994's "Dookie." But in their recent work, there's evidence that these thirtysomething punksters are all grown up.

Armstrong, Dirnt and Cool, all fathers now, have collaborated to write forceful political indictments of President Bush and the Iraq war, along with critical commentaries about individual alienation and societal complacency. The impassioned "American Idiot" even contains nine-minute suites with lyrics like, "We are the kids of war and peace, from Anaheim to the Middle East."

Jimmy Eats World opens Monday's show.

Judy Chia Hui Hsu: 206-464-3315

or jhsu@seattletimes.com