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Steamboat Springs — Guitarist Sean Hengstler and the other four restaurant cooks who make up local rock band Lower Concentration have a little trouble defining what it is they do.

The band that started about nine months ago as a guitarist and a drummer hanging out after work has grown to include a bassist and a trumpet player.

“We’ve been called dramatic, but it’s more like brass, because we’ve got a trumpet — so it’s brass-punk-mountain-metal,” Hengstler said.

The members of Lower Concentration haven’t really decided how to classify their take on what Hengstler calls “unconscious rock,” so they recommend that anyone who’s curious come see their set Wednesday at Old Town Pub.

Lower Concentration is the opening act for BAFW’s season-opening party, an event starting at 9 p.m. Wednesday that features three bands and two DJs.

BAFW is the abbreviated name of a snowboard wax company owned and operated by Steamboat Springs residents.

Amputators — a local rock quartet with streaks of punk, Southern rock and bawdy humor — play second. DJs Chris Seefelt and Dark Eyez will play techno music during band set changes. Headliner Frontside Five — a skate rock band from Denver that produces tight, fast and loud songs about killing time, skating and being awesome — will close the party.

“I think every year we get more people involved and better bands,” event organizer Sarah Seguin said about Wednesday’s lineup. Local businesses have contributed some prizes to give away throughout the event, and Old Town Pub will run drink specials at the bar all night, Seguin said.

The event is scheduled for Wednesday to celebrate the opening of the Steamboat Ski Area, she said. Thursday is the first official day of the mountain for season pass holders.

BAFW also throws parties with live music for its annual Raft Regatta river race, and celebrated the beginning and end of the 2008-09 ski season with hard-rocking events at Old Town Pub. Hengstler’s band played the 2009 Raft Regatta party, and the turnout was strong, he said.

“All the (BAFW) parties are a success. They’re pretty much all for local friends and everyone seems to come out of the woodwork for it,” Hengstler said.

BAFW owner Matt Anderson plans to be outside the Gondola building at the Steamboat Ski Area on Wednesday and Thursday promoting the show and giving out free samples of his company’s snowboard wax.www.myspace.com/frontsidefive.