Thanks everyone for your responses. it was great to hear everyone's perspective on this. It sounds like the mesh heads might be the best compromise.
Right now the drummer doesn't sing and doesn't have a monitor pointed at him. With the mesh heads would it be best to have the drummer wear in-ear monitors, or just use a standard floor monitor?
Ears if possible. You could do a hardwired body pack to save cost.
Remember, a floor monitor would need to be capable of producing all the drum sounds to be heard on stage. Kick, snare, toms, ect. The rest of the band will need to hear the drums too.
The drummer I often work with uses the Roland TD30 module along with a Roland personal monitor. It works pretty well. I'm able to take 4 separate outputs. kick, snare, toms and cymbals. Which gives me the ability to mix them separately out front and also in each monitor mix.
***I've tried to get him using in-ears a couple of times, but he prefers a wedge.