Shortt on Time

At 25, acoustic rocker Rachel Shortt has fronted a tween band, couch-surfed from coast to coast, and even slept underneath the Detroit Road bridge in Rocky River for a few nights. On her fifth CD, Shortt Stories, the Cleveland native chronicles her past in an angst-packed capsule. "My music is a direct reflection of everything that happens in my life. Parental supervision wasn't a necessity in my household. I reached out to music when I was young, because it was the only outlet for the things that were going on with me. Ever since, it's been my way of filtering out my negativity," says Shortt, whose influences range from the Beatles to Sheryl Crow. "When it comes down to it, I gear toward the angry."In concert tonight, with DJ Hatchet and Steven Carriker on the bill, Shortt waxes nostalgic about her three-year stint in Seattle before she returned home in March. "I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kinda gal," she says. "In a way, I'm a modern-day gypsy. I go wherever life takes me." The concert starts at 9:30 tonight at the Closing Room, 13813 Lorain Avenue. Admission is free. Call 216-688-1760 or visit www.myspace.com/theclosingroom.
Sat., June 21, 9:30 p.m., 2008