Finally tonight, if you've been to one of the villes, Asheville or Nashville, you've no doubt seen them, tourist and party buses all over downtown.

But it's not something you normally see around Charlotte.

That is, until now.

Carolina Impact's Jason Terzis joins us with details.

- Well, for nearly 20 years now, LaZoom has been one of the top attractions in Asheville, with a 4.8 rating on nearly 2,000 Google reviews.

But then five years ago, COVID happened.

And last fall, Hurricane Helene happened, and that got the owners thinking and spearheaded an expansion to Charlotte.

(bright music) - Alright, give it up for Jason from PBS (indistinct).

- [Jason] It's not every day I get a welcoming ovation when going on a story.

Then again, it's not every day my work takes me on a party bus.

That was the case a couple of Saturdays ago when I hopped aboard the LaZoom Fender bender.

- Alright, my name is Alex, I'll be your host today.

- [Jason] It's a three-hour local brewery tour.

- A three hour tour, and they're all dressed as sailors.

- [Jason] But as it turns out, the highlight wasn't the breweries.

It was the bus itself.

- It's the bus.

- Yeah.

The bus is the star for sure.

- [Jason] And those in it.

♪ She had to be a nomad across (indistinct) ♪ - [Jason] From the four member onboard rock band, to its eye catching New Orleans-themed purple and gold paint scheme and ruby red lips on the front- - We saw the bus drive by a couple weekends ago, and I was like, "What is that?"

And immediately, we booked it.

- [Jason] It's an attention grabber, all right.

- Hi, hello.

- So much so, people on the streets can't help but notice.

- And then the bus itself is its own beautiful billboard.

So yeah, you'll experience when you're riding the tour today just how many miles drop when we go by with the full band, and they're like, "What is that?"

- [Jason] Some even joining in on the fun.

- They're gonna remember way more what happened on the bus than they are at brewery, for sure.

- [Jason] The LaZoom Fender Bender tour departs from Camp North End.

First stop, the nearby, not a brewing company.

- Now, this is a Charlotte staple, all right?

It was started in 2011.

I want everyone, when they leave the bus, to set their phone alarms for 25 minutes, all right?

- Woo!

- Just enough time to grab a beverage of choice, enjoy the patio for a few minutes, get a quick photo out front, and get back on the bus.

- Alright, we're heading to another party.

So get those butts in your seats, and let's get going.

♪ All you wanna do is ride around Sally ♪ ♪ Ride, Sally, ride - [Jason] Onboard this particular tour and celebrating her birthday, Misty Heard.

She and all her friends donning boat captain's hats for the occasion.

♪ Happy birthday to you (crowd cheering) - For this one, I was like, live music on a bus, we love celebrating big for birthdays, so we're like, "This is it.

This is what we're gonna do."

- [Jason] Stop number two, Resident Culture Brewing Company on Central Avenue.

After just enough time for another round, it was back on the bus.

- Did you guys have fun at Resident Culture?

- Yeah.

- Woo!

- Alright, we are heading to our final brewery of the day.

- I think it's amazing.

I think it's so much fun.

People have a blast.

- The emcee is amazing.

He's killing it.

From the moment we got on, I was like, "This is awesome."

The energy he brings is just top-notch.

(singing indistinctly) - [Jason] The house band, or in this case, bus band is known as My Better Half, featuring husband and wife combo, Ellen and Frank Adams.

- And we played on several boats, but this is our first time on a bus.

So it's a learning experience.

It's been fun.

♪ I love rock 'n roll ♪ So put another dime in the jukebox, baby ♪ - The band really kind of brings in the audience and feeds off each other, and everyone is just having a really genuine good time.

- [Chris] Third and final stop on the Fender Bender beer tour, Highwire Brewing in South End.

Time for one last round in a little game of football billiards.

♪ Rock me, mama, like the wind and the rain ♪ ♪ Rock me, mama, like a southbound train ♪ - With a ride back to Camp North End, the fender bender beer tour was sadly over, but not the day though for Bus Driver Frank or tour guide Alex.

A couple hours later, these guys were back on the bus.

This time, for LaZoom's ghosted tour, a different tour with a totally different vibe.

- 10 years earlier, a woman named Foy Cooper was brutally murdered here.

There are hundreds of dead bodies in here, and the tails are too numerous to tell.

- [Chris] If you haven't heard of LaZoom Tours, there's reason for that.

They're new to Charlotte, but not new to North Carolina.

Thanks to owners Jimmy and Jen Lauzon, they've been an Asheville staple for 18 years.

- Our main vision behind it was to create a tour for the locals that they would want to have their out-of-town friends and family come on.

- So we have four different tours in Asheville.

Our flagship tour is called the "Hey Asheville."

It's an hour and a half city sightseeing tour with two person sketch comedy.

- It was the most fun thing we did in Asheville when we were there.

- [Chris] After COVID shut LaZoom down for over a full year, Jimmy and Jen began thinking about expanding outside Asheville.

Then Hurricane Helene happened, shutting them down for another six weeks.

They're finally back up and running now, but at only at about 50%.

- So we opted to take this opportunity to come to Charlotte, a city that we love.

We've got a lot of friends here, we come here often, and so we have already known a lot about the city, knew it would be a good choice for us, and just seize the moment.

So here we are.

- Yeah, we just rented a house, brought everybody down, and we're like, "Alright, let's memorize the streets, let's go to the library, get the stories."

And yeah, it's been very exciting.

- I think it's really flourishing here because it's genuine.

The owners care about what they're doing.

They genuinely care about the people riding the bus and putting a good show for them.

- [Jason] The Charlotte Ghosted Tour launched in December, with Fender Bender Beer tour in February.

- And we've started it in a really quiet time.

We started in the dead of winter, just kind of intentionally so we could work out the kinks.

- It's been a little humbling, feeling, just being so well known in Asheville and then coming here and having to explain what we do and things like that.

And people are like, "Oh, I think that'll work."

And I'm like, "It will work.

Trust me, it's awesome.

- [Jason] They're obviously hoping their LaZoom Charlotte tours will be as popular as their ones in Asheville, and so far, I'd say they're off to a pretty good start.