or drunk, whichever 
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There is an entire genre (and an awesome one) named for the bands not even looking up at the crowd at all 
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In the 80s I saw Sandii & the Sunsetz open for Eurhythmics. I was there for the Eurhythmics, but I donāt remember a single detail from their performance.
What I remember is the moment when the S & the Sās bass player, whoād been standing rather quietly in one spot, took two steps forward. The entire audience lost their minds and screamed. He looked at the band like āwtf?ā, then did it again. We all screamed again.
The movements he made were with the music and emphasized what he was playing (including those forward steps) which gave him incredible presence.
If you play the music with your whole self, whether thatās jumping around or just taking a step forward, youāll have presence.
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Shoegaze!
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Super cool!
And, yeah, Iāve been to several concerts where the openers stole the show and I had no memory of the headliners. One I remember specifically was a concert where the openers had to cancel for some reason, so the promoters replaced them with TWO bands. The first one was Graham Central Station supporting Larry Grahamās first āsoloā outing. The lights went down and some percussion started at the back of the Dane County Coliseum in Madison, Wisconsin. The entire band, musicians and background singers, worked their way through the crowd (about 8500) singing acapella to all kinds of percussion and noise makers. Very funky! Once on stage, they played about a 40 minute set that rocked the audience. Iāve been a Larry Graham fan ever since. I could have left after they finished and felt like I got WAY more than my moneyās worth. 
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Wear a mask - like a halloween mask - anything really coolā¦ It works, and youāll have a ton of fun playing on stage as a band when everyone is wearing a mask of some sortā¦
Iām from Des Moines, IAā¦ bands wearing masks are played out here.
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A couple of these that comes to mind were both for (hed)p.e. that was headlining.
The first had Fear Factory, System of a Down, and Static-X opening for them.
The second had 3 bands, HPE headlining, before them was Papa Roach, and the warmup act, a nobody group that hadnāt released an album yetā¦ Linkin Park. Fun fact I found out about that show a year or so later on Lou Brutusā Hard Drive radio show: for that specific show, some roady had locked the key in the running truck that had HPEās and Papa Roachās gear in the December cold in Minnesota while stopping for a break and missed getting to the show on time so everyone had to use Linkin Parkās equipment. LP sounded the best, of course. Having seeing HPE the year or so before in the same venue I was trying to figure out whey they sounded worse this time. Not bad, just not as good. Question answered. They just didnāt have time to get properly dialed in on unknown gear.
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Verdine White is a good example (Earth Wind and Fire) of how to build stage presence. Or John Entwhistle. Two opposite ends of the spectrum. Both a lot of presence.
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