NOT ALL OPS ARE OPTIMAL

Big Loud artist Charles Wesley Godwin’s first sold-out headline show at L.A.'s El Rey Theatre was a generally wonderful experience for the buzzing troubadour, though it did involve being corralled into a photo op with our own Nicole Ghapgharan (r) and Jesse MacMillan (l)—and thus entailed a bewildering amount of small talk about squirrels and the Red Sox. Ultimately, Godwin excused himself for a moment, hopped on the tour bus and yelled “Floor it, for the love of all that’s holy.”