Las Vegas natives Angelo Robledo and Ruben Jackson had already spent several years carving out respective roles in the local DJ scene when Oddfellows booked them for a fatefully impromptu vinyl-only Halloween set in 2024. They’d only met once before, when Jackson was tapped to fill in when Robledo was out of town that summer, but their chemistry was undeniable.
Bonding over deep cuts in disco, funk, R&B, soul and house, the pair reprised the collaboration every other month through March 2025, at which point they launched a monthly residency they named House of Wax—both a nod to the 1953 Vincent Price classic and DJ slang for vinyl records.
They’ve since expanded to other venues like Pachi-Pachi, Sand Dollar Lounge, Todo Bien and Dustland Bar—the site of their most recent January 16 show, where they grooved through Luther Vandross’ “Never Too Much,” “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” by McFadden & Whitehead, and deeper cuts like Bessie Banks’ 1976 disco soul gem, “Don’t You Worry Baby The Best Is Yet To Come.”
One thing that sets them apart is their format. Rather than indulging in more typical alternating hourlong sets, the duo has found its own rhythm in trading off every 10 to 15 minutes throughout the night, which Robledo says, “adds a slightly different flavor to the mix.”
Another key is their dense combined vinyl catalog—numbered in the thousands—which offers them the flexibility to curate performances to match the distinct feel of a particular venue. At Dustland, they’ll spin slower funk, soul and R&B tracks from the late ’70s, while other spaces require faster-paced disco and house jams.
Cultivating this vinyl fleet is half the battle. Robledo’s collection is approaching 3,000, while Jackson—who laughs at his own lack of organization—lost count long ago. They frequent local shops like Zia Records, Moondog Records, Record City and 11th Street Records, but add that their rarest finds have come while visiting places like Philadelphia and New York.
“Most of the records I buy are ones I didn’t even know about before I walked into the store,” Jackson says. “It’s all part of this cycle where I love discovering and performing new music, which only keeps the rabbit hole going.”
While vinyl record sales have been steadily surging since the early 2000s, all-vinyl DJ nights remain relatively rare in Vegas. Both Robledo and Jackson started incorporating vinyl into their solo sets after the pandemic, but roughly 90% of their sets are now analog-only.
“We kind of locked in and got into it right before the rush,” Jackson says of an emerging local vinyl scene. “At this point, I’ve just grown way more comfortable with my records than I am with my flash drive, so I’ve really leaned into it.”
Robledo—whose passion for the format was ignited when he studied abroad in Dublin—has also come to see himself as a “vinyl DJ” now. For both, that identity comes with a sense of duty to find and share the vast number of records that have somehow still evaded online streaming platforms.
“As the world gets more digital and AI continues to grow bigger, more and more people seem to be rejecting all of that by seeking an authentic vinyl experience,” Robledo says. “I think there’s just a greater recognition that physical media is kind of where the true skill and passion lies.”
HOUSE OF WAX January 22, 8 p.m., free, Rouge Room, rougeroomlv.com. January 25, 10 p.m., free, Oddfellows, oddfellowslv.com. January 30, 9 p.m., free until 10 p.m., Pachi-Pachi, ilovepachipachi.com. Instagram.com/houseofwaxlv.
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