Fall Out Boy Tour Diary: Pete Wentz Takes a Camera Where No Fan Has Gone Before

When Fall Out Boy roll into town on their Believers Never Die, Part Deux tour, fans see the band hit the stage in their mock-corporate suits and bust out hits from Folie a Deux back to 2003's Take This To Your Grave. But when Rolling Stone's Nicole Frehsée met up with Pete Wentz and Co. in Las Vegas for an On the Road story in our current issue (on stands now!), she got a load of a lot more FOB as they munched Sun Chips and chatted about Twitter pre-show and headed off to a post-gig party featuring one of Hugh Hefner's ex-girlfriends and a promised Slip N' Slide greased with K-Y.

Clearly there's a lot going on backstage with Fall Out Boy that fans don't see — until now. RS handed the band a Flip video camera and asked for a tour diary, and Wentz delivered, documenting everything from the band's stable of guitars and basses (including the LED-lit axes they rock on "I Don't Care" that Wentz is convinced will give him back cancer one day) to the file cabinet that holds his Chapstick and Tums. Check out the band sound-checking and hanging with fans at a meet-and-greet, plus Wentz's guided tour of the bowels of Seattle's WaMu Theater — which comes with tips for sneaking backstage at shows and a close-up look at the band's wardrobe, Pete in the makeup chair and of course, front-row footage as the show kicks off.

For even more Fall Out Boy on the road, don't miss our report from their opening night show plus photos of the tour in action. And in Part One of their tour diary, Patrick Stump checked out some of their coolest fan-made art

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

More Song Stories entries »

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