‘The Opener’ sets the stage for The Jester for Wallice, who in April 2023, found herself on stages in arenas full of strangers. The Los Angeles songwriter was on the other side of the world, playing shows to 10,000 or more people who had, in many cases, been standing in line for days to see their favorite band, The 1975. Wallice was the opener, playing the biggest shows of her life to crowds that mostly didn’t know her name. It was a thrill, of course, but there was dejection to it, too, to staring out at front rows of blank faces, struggling with the sleeplessness of a few days spent in line.

So Wallice did what songwriters do: She turned the uncanny experience into ‘The Opener’, the six-minute gambit of her first LP, The Jester. As the track moves from tender ballad to defiant rocker, she considers all the bad things she might say about her own art—a Radiohead rip-off, too innocent, too determined—and moves forward, anyway. “Gonna get what I deserve/I’m still the opener,” she roars in the final seconds, balancing future hopes with present conditions across a razor wire of howling guitars.

“I went on a month-long tour opening for The 1975, which was a dream come true. It was an amazing experience – but was also interesting to think about the job of an opener. Is it to warm up the crowd or just fill the empty space? Many people who were in the front of the crowd had been camping outside for hours in hopes to get barricade and be closer to The 1975, so they weren’t too enthused with my performance, someone they had never heard of,” shares Wallice. “I would always go watch the show after I played. One night, this girl bumped into me and spilled her beer on me – which then made me spill my tea – and she said a quick sorry and left. The experience kind of made me feel like I hadn't just given it my all on the stage, like I was another faceless body in a big arena. ‘The Opener’ is about the accomplishments and failures in my career so far, and how some things are both at the same time.”