God Save the QC 5 festival expands days, venues

God Save the Queen City - one of the music scene's best homegrown indie music festivals - is expanding in its fifth year. The festival presented by Charlotte print shop Ink Floyd will now take place over three days from August 27 to 29 at a different venue each night.

The event kicks off Thursday at Evening Muse Boise, Idaho's the Ravenna Colt, Oxford, Mississippi's Water Liars, and local staples Amigo and Justin Fedor.

Friday GSTQC returns to NoDa's Chop Shop, which has hosted the festival since its inception and maintains the thread established last year of featuring some of Nashville's best up and coming under the radar bands Diarrhea Planet, Pujol and Music Band. Other acts include Indiana's Kansas Bible Company, Water Liars, and Charlotte's Ancient Cities, Bubonik Funk, and Junior Astronomers.

The festival concludes Saturday with two separate lineups at NC Music Factory. The Fillmore will host Dean Ween Group, who sold out Visulite this Spring, Athens' Futurebirds - a returning favorite - and locals Benji Hughes and Alternative Champs that night. Locals Temperance League, Pullman Strike, Black Market, the Sammies, Hungry Girl, and Giant Squid Squad will play a free show elsewhere at the Music Factory from 3 to 6 p.m. as a warm up to the Fillmore show. The venue will be announced later.

Tickets for each night will be sold separately at individual venues' sites with discounted early bird tickets available this coming weekend for $10 for Thursday and Friday's shows and $20 for Saturday's Dean Ween show. Advance tickets will then increase to $14, $15, and $25, respectively. Day of show tickets will again increase to $20 for the first two shows and $30 for the Fillmore show.

The festival's focus remains on both the city's finest homegrown acts as well as national Americana and indie rock bands that the folks at Ink Floyd think you should know about. In its four years, GSTQC has built a reputation for showcasing some of the best underrated acts out there. Lee Bains III and the Glory Fires were signed to Sub Pop six months after playing GSTQC and St. Paul & the Broken Bones broke in a big way nationally since its early appearance on the GSTQC bill. Its since sold out Neighborhood Theatre twice. Acts like Jessica Lea Mayfield, the Futurebirds, and Apache Relay have continued to gain ground nationally as well.

For more information go to http://gstqc.com/.