One thing about MEAC teams like the Hampton Pirates: They sure do like their marching bands.

The Pirates come to town on Saturday to play against Old Dominion at Foreman Field. Well, that is, the football team will come to play against ODU in a battle of teams which will both bring 2-0 records to the meeting.

The Pirates marching band? They’ll just come to play. And if past performance is any indication, the band members will feel it’s their right to play their instruments any time they feel like it.

...

Even during the actual playing of the game.

Because, hey, everybody came to see the band play, right?

My belief is that the Hampton University band could be in for a very, very rude awakening on Saturday.

At Foreman Field, the band isn’t the show. The football is the show.

Look, I like the HU band. The Pirates’ band members knock it out. They are loud, bold and brassy. And their playlist isn’t the same ol’ same ol’. They are creative and inventive, from week to week.

They are entertaining. Their band majors put on a real performance. Fans at ODU will be impressed. My hope is that HU’s band has a major presence somewhere near the stadium before the game. And I will come and watch.

No doubt, HU’s band will blast it out for the 30 minutes before the game begins, wailing from the stands.

My other hope is that once the game begins, the HU band knows its place, which will be in the southeast corner of the stands in HU’s 1,000-seat section of Foreman Field.

There will be a Colonial Athletic Association officiating crew working Saturday’s game. Unlike the MEAC crew working last year’s 28-14 ODU victory at Hampton’s Armstrong Stadium, the CAA crew will very likely put the clamps on HU’s habit of performing while the ball is in play.

HU’s band will take the field for the halftime entertainment Saturday. And I guarantee it will be good. It always is. There is talk of ODU’s band and HU’s band meeting on the field after the game to perform for whoever sticks around.

Actually, there’s a lot of talk. Sources tell me there have been three different meetings heading into this game in which the central subject of the meeting was the Hampton University band.

Imagine that.

By Rich Radford, Virginian-Pilot
http://hamptonroads.com/2011/09/and-band-played-and-and