By Scott McLennan and Paul Robicheau

The Disco Biscuits chose Boston as its base for a three-night New Year’s run that unfolded in three different venues.

New Year’s Eve is a high holiday among jam bands and their fans. Playing a celebratory concert on Dec. 31 to ring in the new year was something the Grateful Dead codified as ritual and Phish developed into spectacle. Now jammers of all stripes set up multi-day runs around the country during the week leading up to New Year’s Eve.

The Disco Biscuits, this year for the first time, chose Boston as its base for a three-night New Year’s run that unfolded in three different venues.

The big news heading into the holiday shows was that the band and its celebrated drummer of 20 years, Allen Aucoin, parted ways somewhat acrimoniously and abruptly in October.

Drummer Marlon B. Lewis immediately stepped in as Disco Biscuits’ new drummer and was behind the kit with for fall festivals and concerts starting in late October. Lewis made his Boston debut this week, and the Disco Biscuits quite literally have not missed a beat as the band continues to enjoy a creative resurgence 30 years into its career.

The action began Dec. 29 at The Sinclair in Cambridge, where the band delivered one of its so-called Tractorbeam shows, a moniker it uses for all-instrumental sets. Then the band resumed being good ol’ Disco Biscuits for a show Dec. 30 at Royale in Boston and rang in the new year with a three-set concert at Roadrunner in Brighton, in what was billed as The Boston Techno Party.

Night one, The Sinclair

Aron Magner, left, and Marc Brownstein connecting during the Tractorbeam concert at Sinclair. Photo: Sam McLennan

The Disco Biscuits opened its New Year’s run by assuming its alter ego of Tractorbeam and delivering a sprawling two-plus-hour set at the 525-person capacity The Sinclair in Cambridge.

When performing as Tractorbeam, the band members don matching white track suits and stick to a program of instrumentals. Tractorbeam rearranges and repurposes parts of the Disco Biscuits’ songbook as well as loops in songs by other artists — the overall sound is shaped by DJ, techno, dub, and house music styles and culture.

The Disco Biscuits debuted its instrumental Tractorbeam persona in 2007 and has refined the project over time. It has become a way of serving a distilled version of the group’s “trancefusion” style; at the Sinclair, Tractorbeam never stopped performing — the music flowed steadily for nearly two and a half hours.

This show was the group’s third Tractorbeam set to feature the band’s new drummer, Marlon B. Lewis. Lewis’ predecessor, Allen Aucoin, had a masterful touch with electronic drums, which bolstered Tractorbeam’s sound — it was key to making the side band more than a novelty.

Drummer Marlon B. Lewis during the Tractorbeam show at Sinclair. Photo: Sam McLennan

Lewis, though, nicely incorporated his own groove into the Tractorbeam mix as he held down the steady beats that propelled the trancey and dancey flow of the music.

Playing just a few just shows each year, Tractorbeam has developed some set pieces that the band uses as launching pads for crafting a succession of dramatic peaks and interesting drifts. The opening mashup of Dom Dolla’s “Girl$” and the Biscuits’ original “Times Square,” for example, has popped up quite a few times in both Tractorbeam and Disco Biscuits concerts. At the Sinclair, the combo was a party starter, though it was comparatively staid in terms of what eventually followed.

Bassist Marc Brownstein played as much synth as he did traditional bass. Guitarist Jon “Barber” Gutwillig kept his playing locked in the same groove throughout much of the show, though as the set progressed, he ventured further out. A spiraling version of the Disco Biscuits’ original “Another Plan of Attack” was peppered with samples of Gwen Stefani singing her No Doubt hit “Hella Good,”which inspired Gutwillig to soar during his solos.

Keyboard player Aron Magner was the mad scientist, weaving in samples that ranged from dance tracks by Kaskade and Max Dean to Luke Dean and Locky. In “The Wormhole,” Magner looped in manipulated recordings of Disco Biscuits performances to create a live remix of songs.

Marc Brownstein playing synthesizer with Tractorbeam. Photo: Sam McLennan

Tractorbeam is also good at mashing songs together into a new piece of music, as was the case when the band fused Disco Biscuits’ tracks “Tourists (Rocket Ship)” and “On Time,” creating not so much a medley as a tune that slides between two other songs.

Tractorbeam’s set peaked with a synthesis of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” and the Biscuits’ concert staple “Tricycle” — the result blurred the lines between dance and psychedelia.

Tractorbeam hinted at things to come at the end of the show — a frenetic version of “Also sprach Zarathustra.” Bridging classical and techno elements in a jam band setting is at the heart of the Disco Biscuits’ music. The band had more of that in store for the second night of its New Year’s run.

Night two, Royale

The track suits were put back into storage when Barber, Brownstein, Magner, and Lewis took the stage at Royale in Boston on Tuesday. This was Disco Biscuits proper. The Tractorbeam show boasted a dazzling light show, but the visuals at Royale were even bolder, as screens around the venue and on the ceiling mirrored the lights and graphics framing the musicians at work on stage.

Disco Biscuits light show in full effect at the Royale. Photo: Sam McLennan

The Royale show was in line with a traditional Disco Biscuits performance: two sets, lots of jams, and an expansive look at the songbook: the setlist ranged from 1995’s “Mr. Don” to “Simulations,” which the band introduced in September.

The Biscuits opened the first set with the deep cut “Mirrors,” a Brownstein number that had been shelved for several years before its return in the spring. The raspy voiced bassist put the song’s contemplative mood over the line efficiently, if not gracefully. The song clocked in at over 20 minutes with an extended jam that set the stage for the sort of dynamic shifts and pivots the band would engage in for the rest of the night.

If the Tractorbeam show was about discovering the right flow, the Royale concert was about maneuvering a complex racecourse at top speed. Lewis and Barber in particular seemed keen to upend the methodical, intuitive approach of the first night, replacing that musical order with a crazed energy that carried across both sets at Royale.

The Biscuits launched the poppy beginning into wide open seas with a massive jam, followed by the spiraling instrumental “Abraxas.” The difference between the percussion work of Lewis and Aucoin was evident early on. The newest member of Biscuit draws on a wider palette of sounds, compared to his predecessor’s penchant for layering, looping, and accelerating beats.

The muscular jamming carried into the Barber-sung “Simulations,” a song that fits the mold of recent Biscuits material in terms of offering up an angular melody (most likely born from some earlier improvisational jam that occurred in concert) and windblown lyrics.

The band made a rocking transition into the early era “Mr. Don” but didn’t finish the song before moving back into the mellower “Shelby Rose,” which felt like a perfect bookend to the “Mirrors” opener.

Disco Biscuits guitarist Jon “Barber” Gutwillig at the Royale. Photo: Sam McLennan

While set one was nicely assembled, set two was wilder and ranged wider to greater payoffs. That may sound odd, considering that the Biscuits opened the second set in a classical mode, with “The Overture.”

But the band was roaring along, with Barber thrashing hard enough to lose his hat mid jam and Magner offering inspired counterpoints on keys.

The first big peak of the second set occurred as the Biscuits coursed through “Caves of the East” and “Story of the World.” The band resurrected the ghost of Tractorbeam by sampling “Where Everybody Knows Your Name (Theme from Cheers)” during “Caves.” The band lingered a bit on the “Cheers” shtick, but recovered by plunging into “Story of the World,” which served as a sharply executed pivot from the spectral to the buoyant.

A second peak came about with “Fire Will Exchange,” “Bombs,” and “Confrontation,” a “wartime trilogy” of sorts — these songs are full of conflict and metaphorical weaponry. The songs, each played with verve and unflinching experimentation, span decades of the band’s career, offering a rich look into Disco Biscuits’ evolution.

The band closed its fiery second set by returning to the classical structure of “The Overture.” For its encore, the group delivered a wiry, forceful rendition of “World is Spinning,” as relevant as any song could be to serve as a rallying cry for anyone feeling the existential madness that’s currently creeping into our lives.

The Royale show served up a full plate of tasty Biscuits: it was a memorable evening, despite the fact that it was sandwiched between the rarity of a Tractorbeam show and the spectacle of a New Year’s concert.

Scott McLennan covered music for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette from 1993 to 2008. He then contributed music reviews and features to The Boston Globe, Providence Journal, Portland Press Herald, and WGBH, as well as to The Arts Fuse. He also operated the NE Metal blog to provide in-depth coverage of the region’s heavy metal scene.

Night three, Roadrunner

The Disco Biscuits at Roadrunner. Photo: Paul Robicheau

The Disco Biscuits were especially charged up for their first-ever New Year’s Eve in Boston proper at Roadrunner, even if the 3,500-capacity club was half full. Arriving onstage in tri-cornered hats like Revolutionary Minutemen (along with futuristic wraparound eyewear), the band members surged into opener “Mindless Dribble.” Gutwillig set the energetic tone with ping-ponging guitar notes and rapid vocal volleys in unison with Magner, twice dipping to a pastoral, piano-based flow.

But that old-school launch drifted into the night’s predominant dance-club bent across a fully segued marathon of three sets totaling more than three and a half hours of music. Lewis often emphasized the pulse with a metronomic kick, laying flurries over the top to cymbals and either his snare or an electronic drum, then lashing a choppy hi-hat beat that brought to mind the post-punk electro band New Order as the Biscuits segued into first-set closer “King of the World.”

Marlon B. Lewis of the Disco Biscuits at Roadrunner. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Before the midnight madness of the third set, the night’s middle set truly did the crowd a house party favor befitting New Year’s Eve, stroking dance delirium at the core of the group’s trance-fusion. Cross-planes of white beams bridged “Rivers” before the well-placed “We Like to Party” elevated the club-beat vibe, the Biscuits using the cavernous room to advantage with large-scale laser projections. “Don’t let them tell you all the hype,” Brownstein sang from his keyboard post amid the song’s swirls, builds, and drops while the lasers danced in squiggly shapes across the ceiling and edges of the balcony.

Jon Gutwillig of the Disco Biscuits at Roadrunner

A snatch of house-music hit “Show Me Love” (with a high-vocal sample of its singer Robyn S.) set up “Cyclone,” which hit a repetitive rut with its programmed keyboard vamp, band members briefly pausing to clap along. But Magner took a more organic turn to a Hammond-toned sound, while Brownstein slid into chunky reggae bass before handing off his axe to return to his keyboard for a set-closing reprise of “We Like to Party.”

Anticipation was high for the final set, which began at 12 minutes to midnight, building to a midnight countdown and white-out confetti bursts that inundated celebrants on the bustling floor. The rubbery lines of “Neck Romancer” gave way to Gutwillig (who played a different electric guitar each set) picking out the first tease into the Biscuits standard “Helicopters” on his old Gibson semi-hollow body. Brownstein hand-signaled Lewis to adjust the stuttering beat and the Biscuits were ready to fly. “Happy New Year, look out below!” Gutwillig sang, substituting the song’s title in the chorus with that greeting for 2026.

However, traditional climax achieved, much of the final set lapsed into more of the same throbbing jamtronica (for those with the stamina or drugs to remain in the zone), floating through new tunes “The Bells” and “Better Off Alone.” Finally, the tight, drum-riddled accents of “Rock Candy” (with lights carving vertical fog walls) broke into a brisk reprise of “Helicopters.” With a final flourish from Lewis at 1 a.m. sharp, the Biscuits closed the page on 2025 and music into the new year.

It’s been a quarter century since the Disco Biscuits capped the year 2000 with a transcendent show at the Worcester Palladium during a then-peak period for the band. But the group proved that, even on its third drummer, it can still rage with superior chemistry, energy, and flow, sealing another historic New Year’s run in Bisco history.

Paul Robicheau served more than 20 years as contributing editor for music at the Improper Bostonian in addition to writing and photography for The Boston Globe, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He was also the founding arts editor of Boston Metro.