LCD Soundsystem concerts draw laughing gas sellers

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It's a gas, gas, gas.

A band of high-larious hucksters have been brazenly selling balloons filled with laughing gas outside of the popular East Williamsburg music venue Brooklyn Steel amid growing concern over the drug's abuse — especially among teenagers.

"You do a lot of high-intensity psychedelic drugs, and this is a dissociative drug. This is a good way to calm down," explained Ty, a 32-year-old bartender who was inhaling the gas out of a blue balloon. "These guys are probably gonna … make a killing."

Laughing gas, or nitrous oxide, is an uncontrolled substance available for purchase, although selling or using the drug to get high is a misdemeanor. In 2020, there was a 33 percent spike nationwide in 8th-graders using inhalants, which includes nitrous oxide. The next year, state legislators banned the sale of whipped cream cartridges containing the substance to anyone under 21.

"What bothered me really was when I found them in piles in the district, [the cartridges] were neon green or pink," said State Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr., the bill's sponsor. "These were being marketed to minors."

Huffing the gas can be dangerous, with as many as 200 inhalant-related deaths per year, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Excessive use of laughing gas can result in heart attacks, fainting and loss of blood pressure. One man became partially paralyzed for several weeks after inhaling the gas daily for months, according to a case study published the New England Journal of Medicine in September.

The Post observed seven men, some with their faces partially obscured by ski masks, setting up tanks filled with nitrous oxide Tuesday night in front of the venue's entrance on Frost Street, just as the dance-punk band LCD Soundsystem was wrapping up its set. The shady salesmen quickly inflated blue and pink balloons and began barking their wares at the sweaty crowds exiting the venue.

"Ice cold! Medical-grade! Get your whippets!" sellers shouted, using another term for the drug. "Two for $10! 4 for $20!"

A man in a plaid jacket quietly forked over $20 before darting around the corner to get his fix. Other concert-goers, including some who appeared to be teenagers, sucked their balloons near the venue's entrance, with dopey grins soon spreading across their faces.

"It's intense," said Brenden LaPier, 41, a Denver-based cannabis wholesaler who stopped indulging in laughing gas "to hold on to all the brain cells I can."

Several of those inhaling the "hippie crack" Tuesday night noted tank-toting nitro dealers have been fixtures at jam band shows such as Disco Biscuits and Phish concerts as far back as the ’70s, but the salesmen have branched out to concerts in other genres.

"We were in Philadelphia for [the band] Ween last weekend, it was the same deal," said screen printer Laura Lempe, 38, double-fisting balloons the size of her head.

"It's everywhere now," added her partner, Derek, 39.

The demand for laughing gas along Frost Street has been no joke, with the area effectively transforming into a brief afterparty as clusters of balloons lined the block. One security guard at Brooklyn Steel said the gray-market vendors began popping up outside the venue beginning with LCD Soundsystem's first 20-concert run in late 2021. He estimated they went through 100 balloons each night.

"It's like kids with candy," another employee at the venue noted. "If it's there, they’re gonna grab it."

The swarm of nitro dealers and users has been a pain for staff at a bar across the street.

"They’re young and they’re not afraid to just straight up fight you," one miffed bartender said about the nitro sellers.

"We try to keep them out of this area, but it's hard to do."