The Aegean Duo from Vasili’s World Video on Vimeo.

I am a music snob. I admit it and my family and friends know it. Anytime I go to some event where there is music played I am super critical about what kind of music is being played and what order it is played in.  I am also super picky about Greek music.  I think I secretly want to be a DJ, my friend Cynthia knows about my DJ ambitions, in fact she sometimes calls me DJ A-List. So when it came to picking out the band for our wedding, I wanted the best. Due to the demographics of our wedding and our parents suggestions we decided that we wanted a Greek band for our wedding. I thought I had a pretty good grasp on the Greek Bands out of Northeast Ohio. I was right I did. Your main Greek bands in Northeast Ohio are Stigma, Karizma, The Fabulous Grecian Keys, and the Orion Express. But the big problem with Greek Bands is that there are made up of Greek people. As a Greek person myself I know that Greek people like to wait til the last minute to do things, aren’t the best at communicating effectively, and sometimes make promises that they can’t keep. I suffer from these stereotypical traits myself. My mom and I started contacting Greek bands late November, our first choice was booked and our second choice lead us on for approximately 3 months. See some Greek bands in Northeast Ohio are not made up a set group of people and their lineup changes depending on who can play that weekend. This particularly charismatic group was one of those bands and it took them 3 months to not tell us that they couldn’t find a bouzouki player. So after calling a few bands and not getting a response from them or them charging an arm and leg for their sub par performances, I started to get worried. I ended up calling some of the bands that were on the bottom of my list because I didn’t know who to call. One of the bands I called was very responsive and got excited that I called. I have seen them perform so I was excited. But this fabulous band had submitted a contract to a festival that same weekend so they were waiting to hear back from them. So they made us wait a month and half  waiting to hear about this festival contract. So naturally me being me I panicked. I had my parents and Phil’s parents ask everyone they knew what other Greek bands were out there. I was too invested in the idea of having a Greek band to search for a DJ. Luckily we got the best recommendation from Presbytera Goldie who gave Phil’s mom the name of the band that was at her daughter’s wedding, The Aegean Band from Rochester, NY. So naturally I Google’d them and found their website and watched and listening to all their music on their website and I was instantly fell in love with them. The video that was posted on their website I knew all the songs, they were playing songs from the last 5 years (which is rare for some NE Ohio Greek bands), and they sounded great. The moment they had me sold is when they played THREE of my favorite Greek artist’s songs in their promotional video. My Justin Timberlake of Greek music is Nikos Vertis, I love him. I have all of his CDs and my dream is to see him in concert one day. My favorite Greek song of all time is “Pes mou ksana” (The Aegean Band knows that song). When I contacted Steve from the Aegean Band he got back to me within hours of my email and was so nice and accommodating. They were actually up for the same festival contract as the other band that lead me on for a month but told me that I was his first priority since I was contacting him and was willing to reserve the date over the phone. So after discussing the band with Phil and the parentals we booked The Aegean Band and I couldn’t be happier. Opa!

This is Nikos Vertis’ newest single…isn’t he dreamy?