Possible move to Boston in 1 yr, gen ?'s / musician ?'s (Cambridge: apartments, to rent)

[BACoustic]

Hello,

My apologies beforehand for the awkward long post that follows:

Here is my basic situation. I am a 23 year old male living in central New Hampshire, I work in Manufacturing as an Administrative Assistant, but I cover for the Marking/Packing/Shipping supervisor regularly, and scheduler's. I have 4 years experience in this industry and I am currently part time at a local tech, getting my associates in Business Management. Since I was about 12 and I first visited Boston with my elementary school, I have wanted to at least try living there for a few years. Now as I grow older, I feel like time is screaming past me, and I am missing out on potentially the best times to do the things I want. I am a very ambitious person, and have done very well in my current situation, but I feel like if I stay where I am, I am only going to get better, at doing what I am doing, restricted to a small town. So what I am saying is, I think I need to do something, that I want to do, before my life has passed me by, and music is my biggest passion.

That being said, my tenative plan is to finish my a.s in business, within one year, and have lined up an apartment, and jobs hopefully in Boston. I want to move to a city to pursue more musical things. Meaning, I want to get a job involved in music, whether its manufacturing, distributions, sales, promotion, maybe working/writing for a magazine, whatever. At the same time I want to get involved with other musicians in a band situation and playing live, making an album etc. I am going to assume I won't be able to fall into the type of career job I want, so I plan on probably having to work a few part time jobs, to get established, then network with the musical people, and work my way into a career. There is a good possibility that I would go to school on a part time, or full time basis in Boston, either as a Music Major (using my credits from my a.s. in Business) or as a Communications major. If this was planned before hand, I would probably look to student loans/housing. But I am thinking whether I go to school or not, I want to be in a city. I have visited Boston probably 10-20times over the course of my life, and I have many friends in college down their that I am going to visit soon, and hopefully somewhat regularly, to really get the feel for it. I am a small town guy, and I am not racist by any means, but I think its going to be a culture shock for me, because there were only two black guys, and one hispanic girl, in my highschool, the rest were white.

I talked to a few friends, and they suggested Cambridge. They also said I could probably pretty easily get a job at a club/bar as a bouncer/security(somewhere temporarily), as I am a pretty muscular guy, who trains MMA. This would probably also help me network with some bands playing etc etc. Now heres the deal, I need some advice, I currently make about 40k a year and pay about 500 on average a month, in rent and utilities. I understand I will probably be paying a considerable bit more than that, for a much smaller living situation. But I shouldn't need to make as much, as I wont be paying for a car/motorcycle, and insurance on both. Should just be my rent, food, clothes, fun, cell phone, and transportation(T,bus,cabs?), right? I am planning on probably trying to get a roomate situation either through friends, or craigslist. Thing is I have a LOT of stuff, and I know I am going to have to downsize severely, but I am a musician and will need certain things. I figure at the bare minimum, I will need my iMac, two guitars, and 3 keyboards(88key/61key/37key), with a couple of stands, along with a few pieces of rack gear, possibly a smallish mixer/PA and a one, maybe two amps. Am I going to be able to have this all at my apartment? Will I need a storage unit? What do current boston musicians/music students do? Also, without a car, how is gigging going to work? Hope that fellow band members etc, have a van or something? Am I going to try and lug my gear around through the trains? Or take a cab? Or hope that the venue is close enough to walk? I guess I am looking for some insight from musicians in the Boston area. I am also looking for insight on what kind of budget I should be arranging, like how much I am going to need to make a week, to live in Boston in an area that supports my desires. I guess I also need to know how secure am I going to feel leaving my musical equipment in my apartment? I don't want it stolen! I make good money now (for my area/age/experience), so I plan on having music gear that is going to last me awhile, and would not be able to readily replace it without saving for abit, should it get stolen. That being said, I live close enough to Boston, that I can leave some of my stuff stored at my parents in NH, and pick up as needed, and I will also plan on trying to have probably 5k saved up before I go down. . . I dunno, I am kinda scatterbrained and longwinded. If anyone has any advice to offer, please do.

[BACoustic]

Hey,

Not really sure why, but is posting a bunch of HTML language all over my last post. My apologies.

BACoustic

[CaseyB]

I tried to clean it up a bit.

[RemiJP]

The music scene in Boston is great, lots of bands, lots of different types of music and a good amount of venues. Thriving bands who play out a lot usually have access to one car, van, or car+small trailer. Unless you want to play acoustic, you won't want to take your gear on the T. Some also choose to rent a practice space in a warehouse and leave gear there. They vary in cost and some bands choose to split the rent on a single room, alternating practice days. Most people keep their gear in their apartments, in their room, in an attic or in a dry basement. It's possible to rent a room in an apartment for under around 500/month in Allston/Brighton, Jamaica Plain, Somerville and parts of Cambridge.

[BACoustic]

Originally Posted by RemiJP

The music scene in Boston is great, lots of bands, lots of different types of music and a good amount of venues.

This is good to hear, how is the indie/alternative scene? For music in general, is it typically cover bands, originals, or a mix of some sort?

Originally Posted by RemiJP

Thriving bands who play out a lot usually have access to one car, van, or car+small trailer. Unless you want to play acoustic, you won't want to take your gear on the T.

Is this for fear of theft or instrument abuse? Or just plain uncomfortable/inconvenient?

Originally Posted by RemiJP

Most people keep their gear in their apartments, in their room, in an attic or in a dry basement. It's possible to rent a room in an apartment for under around 500/month in Allston/Brighton, Jamaica Plain, Somerville and parts of Cambridge.

The only thing that worries me about keeping gear at my place is the chance of a break in? Like I stated before, I am from a small town in NH. I haven't been exposed to hardly any crime, this will be a big change for me, a big adjustment. I might be overly cautious I guess... What are the chances of something like that happening in any of those areas? I know the chance is always there... but is there a realistic chance, or is it more like 1/10,000?

Thank you for the response,

BACoustic

[RemiJP]

I'd say the indie/alternative scene is very strong (though it's what I'm most familiar with). It's mostly original bands. Check out message board | lemmingtrail, it's a messageboard and events posting site for people interested in the indie, alternative, punk scene.

Break-ins happen, but I wouldn't say it's an overwhelming problem, I've heard of more car break-ins that apartments. I've kept three guitars, a mandolin, amps, drums, mixers, a PA all at my place (in the apartment and in the basement). I lived in the same place in Jamaica Plain for 2 years and moved out slowly starting in August, so I left some of the bigger stuff there (drums and amps) for a while. My place was actually broken into for the first time in 20 years of my landlord owning the property while I was away for a few weeks in January. But they only took a stupid old Dell computer monitor, the big stuff wasn't even moved an inch! Once you narrow down where you want to live the Boston Police has crime maps that you can view.