Showmanship - definitely! But it depends how you do it.. I don't mind a stick twirl for dramatic effect at a point in a show that calls for something like that eg. a breakdown where the vocalist is trying to get the crowd hyped up).. but twirling through standard playing just looks silly and distracting to me. Facial expressions.. well yeah to a point.. you don't want to get gig photos back where in every pic you have your tongue sticking out or whatever.. but guys like Butch Miles used to be great at great facial expressions to express the 'attitude and accents of what he was playing.. very entertaining! What I dig is body movement that expresses the flow.. when I play - my whole body is into it, my sticks are flying, and sweeping arcs - my arms , wrists and hands are just along for the ride.. some call it dance-drumming; but I've got to tell you when you're flying down that train track it feels great - and the audience gets a charge out of it as well.
So - natural expression is great - but phony grandstanding to me is just silly - in fact one of my bass players told me once that if I twirled the sticks he'd throw his bass at me!
So - natural expression is great - but phony grandstanding to me is just silly - in fact one of my bass players told me once that if I twirled the sticks he'd throw his bass at me!