By Scott McLennan and Paul Robicheau

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.

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.

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Night one,The sinclair

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 and also 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.

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 (moast 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.

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 r

The Disco Biscuits Ring in the New Year at Roadrunner

The Disco Biscuits delivered a high-energy performance at Roadrunner in Boston on New Year’s Eve,captivating a devoted crowd with their signature blend of jam band improvisation and electronic music. The show,a cornerstone of the band’s annual New Year’s run,didn’t disappoint,offering a sonic journey that spanned genres and decades.

The first set established the band’s intent, seamlessly weaving together original compositions and carefully selected covers. A standout moment came during a transition that brought to mind the post-punk electro band New Order as the Biscuits segued into first-set closer “King of the World.”

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 “Riv

Key Takeaways

• The Disco Biscuits delivered a high-energy New Year’s Eve performance at Roadrunner.
• The band blended jam band improvisation with electronic music.
• The first set featured seamless transitions and a nod to New Order.
• The second set focused on dance-focused trance-fusion.