Thinking about switching gears... advice?

Hi all

I am almost at my year anniversary of "seriously" learning to play. I have almost exclusively been playing fingerstyle and continue to enjoy it.

My dilemma is that I now want to branch out a little. Recently, I have been to a few house parties where a few guitars have been pulled out, and on a couple of occasions, a drum set was available. I am really wanting to join in and my solo fingerstyle playing just isn't cutting it for that. I feel left out... I consider myself a guitar player... a beginner maybe, but still a player. However, when it comes to actually getting together with a group of people and just playing around, jamming... I can't join in.

Over the last year I have learned a heck of a lot of chords and can switch between them pretty well, in rhythm. I think my left hand finger dexterity and speed is pretty decent. My general sense of rhythm is okay. I can do barre chords pretty well too.

I have pretty much equal interest in learning "lead" guitar and rhythm guitar.

My question to you guys is... generally, is it better to start learning rhythm guitar, chord progressions, and strumming, etc and then move onto solo stuff (picking, scales, etc) or vise versa. Basically.. where should I go from here to start playing at parties? Most of the time, at these parties the music is usually classic rock.

One of my fears is what I experienced early on - trying to learn too much, too many varied styles at once. I want to focus on one thing for a while, get a good grasp of it and then move on incorporating other things.

So, just some general advice, or stories of your personal experiences and journeys would be greatly appreciated.

My idea right now is to start by going through the Guitarnose Podcast series from beginning to end.... whatcha think?

Thanks everyone!

PS: I am not giving up on fingerstyle and definitely plan to continue practicing and learning it.