Great review, and great additional comments from others too!
My thoughts of a couple of other things:
Pacific Crest was my surprise of the night. A really well designed show, lots of great musical and visual impacts, and like Jon said, at this rate they'll be a finalist soon. I've liked their shows before, but tonight was a huge step up for them! Keep it going PC!
I loved Phantom's show, but the pre-show synthesized sound effects were SO loud that the first horn impact seemed soft by comparison. To me it really took away from their great opening.
And yes, Bluecoats horns and drums were definitely on fire, but like you stated, the final bodysuit 'word' effect wasn't very visible.
What a great, responsive crowd as usual here. It's nice to see lots of standing O's (and well-deserved ones!)!!!