I'm developing a Nodejs app to get familiar with the framework. From what I see, everyone uses expressjs framework so I installed that too.
I had intentions to use backbonejs/requirejs.
So far I'm confused as to how they both can work together or if they should. Express wants to render views (via jade) from what I can see. While I planned to have backbone use handlebars to do the rendering.
Should I be using expressjs with backbonejs for a restful application? Sorry if this is a vague question, just need some direction.
Also is there any decent, up to date tutorial on using the two? most I found are pretty dated.
They are totally different things (if I am understanding you correctly). You seem to want to use Backbone on the client side, correct? (I assume this because of you using Require.js). If this is the case, Backbone is on the client, and Express is running on the server. They only really talk through HTTP/Sockets/however you are communicating with the server, so you can use whatever you want.
You can also use Handlebars for client side templates, and Jade server side (albeit it can be alittle difficult to get your Jade to compile to the Handlebars templates properly). However you can also use Handlebars on the server with Express if you like to (I found a module here).
If you are trying to use Backbone on the server side, you can still do that, and they work together fine, however I cannot help you as much.
As for tutorials, even dates examples will still be fine. The two (Backbone and Express) are perfectly compatible, and the only problems I can think that you may have with old tutorials would be slightly different syntaxes in old versions of Express.
If you have a question about a specific part of Backbone/Express that you can't seem to get to work together, feel free to ask.