A&E

DJ Hollywood returns to the Las Vegas dance scene as Wooddrowe

Image
Woodrowe
Eric Ita / Courtesy

He’s a nightlife legend in Las Vegas, but you probably don’t know his name. Not anymore.

Lee Vlasteris is DJ Hollywood, a pioneering open-format DJ who played and programmed the first- and second-generation nightclubs that laid the foundation for the epic scene of today—the Drink, Ra, Rain, Pure and many others.

But he’s also Wooddrowe, a dance genre-dabbling DJ who has risen out of the pandemic and is setting clubs on fire on the East Coast and in Miami. The name is a combo of the Hollywood moniker and his first name, Leandro, and now he’s bringing the party back to Las Vegas.

Vlasteris moved back east in late 2020, a decision that helped solidify his life and family after months of working his way through his young son’s health issues, a divorce and the “extinction level event” that was COVID’s impact on his career.

“It was catastrophic for my business,” he says. “[But] I had been smart enough over the years to save and invest … [and] I did the thing I’d never had the opportunity or the time to pursue—produce.”

As Hollywood, Vlasteris had charted a top 10 track on Billboard’s dance rankings in 2017, more of a foray into house-flavored electronic music than the hip-hop and pop-stacked sets he would spin in Vegas, Miami and Atlantic City. During the downtime, he realized it was time for something of a fresh start.

“The EDM world can be very picky about producers. After doing open-format in Vegas for so many years, it would be difficult to sell myself to that world,” he says. “I have so much respect for the dance world, and I wanted to show that. I wanted to be a new artist and to be treated that way, to release all my music that way, and maybe for someone to come up and say, ‘This is cool, welcome to the game,’ and not know I’ve been in the game for 35 years.”

That’s how Wooddrowe was born. The new persona first performed in the northeast, Miami and Nashville, where he moved for 18 months before recently returning to Vegas. He’ll spin April 1 at the Foundation Room at Mandalay Bay, where he was a resident DJ when the rooftop club and lounge opened some 23 years ago. And he’s been working a lot with longtime friend Dee Jay Silver, leading to gigs at Resort World’s Dawg House Saloon and building a partnership with its ownership group, Cold Beer Entertainment (which is planning to expand to the Park near T-Mobile Arena on the Strip).

“It’s surreal that I’m back, because there was a time when I wasn’t really sure I would be, when there were other things that were more important,” Vlasteris says. “But now my son is doing so much better. I’m coming in as Wooddrowe, and a lot of the guys I came up with in this business have high positions at different casinos and in the entertainment and nightlife fields.

“But I’m still trying to do it the way I did 30 years ago,” he continues, “pounding the pavement, letting my skills speak for me. I’m not stepping in saying I only do dance music. I’m the same guy, I’m just building this name and seeing how far I get. It’s exciting.”

Vlasteris has also rebuilt his company, redeveloping it as Rising Entertainment, maintaining some of his pre-pandemic accounts and spreading into new venues and regions. He has also produced around a hundred remixes and 15 original singles over the past 18 months, he says, armed and ready for a big musical year.

“I’ve been very busy outside Vegas, and now I’m getting back to where I wanted to be,” he says.

WOODDROWE April 1, 9 p.m., $10+. Foundation Room, houseofblues.com. April 2, noon, Red Rock Pool, redrockresort.com. April 7-8, 9 p.m., Dawg House Saloon, dawghouselasvegas.com.

Click HERE to subscribe for free to the Weekly Fix, the digital edition of Las Vegas Weekly! Stay up to date with the latest on Las Vegas concerts, shows, restaurants, bars and more, sent directly to your inbox!

Tags: Nightlife, Dance
Share
Photo of Brock Radke

Brock Radke

Brock Radke is an award-winning writer and columnist who currently occupies the role of managing editor at Las Vegas Weekly ...

Get more Brock Radke
Top of Story