My experience has been through "word of mouth" going around town...
"Man, you gotta here this dude! He plays *everything* and not only that - he can rock!"
1st actual "real band" - live, on stage, gigs in the bars & clubs:
Rocky & The Runarounds. I ended up being one of the "Runarounds" as lead guitar player.
But as hilarious as this sounds, I had to get
military approval from the US Coast Guard.
Friday nights & Saturday nights at the local bar in town.
The only #1 issue: I looked like Rick Nielsen from Cheap Trick, all clean cut, short hair (obviously!).
The rest of the band was all into black leather, long hair, etc... but we had a blast!'
2nd actual "real band" - rehearsing, working it out, and trying to find a gig somewhere, all these decades later...
Will's Attic, was the name we chose for our band, as a basic 3 piece outfit.
We were all school bus drivers within the county public school system, and learned of each other, what each other played, etc...
One thing led to another and we decided to meet at Will's house and get to know one another better, and than jam.
Will: Leader/Drums. We rehearsed in a large upstairs room that was acoustically soundproofed, so we dubbed it "Will's Attic" and the name stuck.
John: Bass/harmony vocals. John was so cool, relaxed, laid back, and always had ideas about chord structure, bass lines, overall rhythm.
Me: Lead guitar, vocals. I did my best at singing hard rock, but due to my range, I just couldn't quite hit those high notes without blowing a blood vessel!
Sadly, things weren't going well within the school bus county school district, and Will quit, I transferred, and John (as the more "senior" of our group) retired.
It was fun while it lasted. But getting to the point... I look at Craigslist a few times, but see all these young hip hop people posting up stuff, or some nasty, snarling, vicious, hardcore, heavy metal musician, posting up wanting to meet others.
*sigh* "Grandpa rock" might be viewed as Oldies in today's world, but the music was the best and really meant something too!