diff --git a/stepmania/src/ActorCommands.cpp b/stepmania/src/ActorCommands.cpp
index 2670efe72d..6826c696d4 100644
--- a/stepmania/src/ActorCommands.cpp
+++ b/stepmania/src/ActorCommands.cpp
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 
 ActorCommands::ActorCommands( const CString &sCommands )
 {
-	if( sCommands.Left(1) == "%" )
+	if( sCommands.size() > 0 && sCommands[0] == '%' )
 	{
 		m_sLuaFunction = sCommands;
 		m_sLuaFunction.erase( m_sLuaFunction.begin() );
diff --git a/stepmania/src/ThemeManager.cpp b/stepmania/src/ThemeManager.cpp
index 92b5e8fa58..a6ef39a929 100644
--- a/stepmania/src/ThemeManager.cpp
+++ b/stepmania/src/ThemeManager.cpp
@@ -685,7 +685,8 @@ CString ThemeManager::GetMetric( const CString &sClassName, const CString &sValu
 
 void ThemeManager::EvaluateString( CString &sText )
 {
-	/* If the string begins with an @, treat it as a Lua expression.
+	/* If the string begins with an @, then this is a Lua expression
+	 * that should be evaluated immediately.
 	 * Still do font aliases on the resulting string. */
 	LuaHelpers::RunAtExpressionS( sText );