... I had expected you to say the obvious: "Just look down!"
anyway, i meet most of the people that i work with musically by being part of the "scene". I hang out at shows that interest me, and get to know the musicians in the area. That way, if I need to do a live gig or something, I have a pool of known musicians that I can draw from.
For instance, for my last show, I got the bassist from a dream theater tribute, the guitarist and keyboard player from an yngwie tribute, and the drummer from a queensryche tribute: all KNOWN quantities who i had seen play live several times.
but the same idea works for putting a band together: if you want to avoid the long line of losers that usually show up for auditions, make yourself part of the scene, get some contacts, and get that "friend of a friend" thing going.
oh, and i find that most people who CLAIM in ads or over the phone to be influenced by technical music are freaking LYING! I can't TELL you how many times i've shown up to jam with a band that claimed to sound like dream theater meets queensryche, only to find out that they sounded like BAD sabbath wanna-bees.
"play him that one riff, dude!"
no, please... don't.