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can u play covers at a club?

ok...i got a gig playing solo at this club around here its a christan club and its not that big of a place. one of my friends has a band that is playing there this Sat. and he talked to the owner and she said i could play too. and i thought yeah i could do this i have like 4 solo bass peices and 2 covers. well i went up to my friend later that night and asked him what was going to happen next week and he told me 3 things.

1. i wasnt getting paid to do it because the owner had to hear me first

2. i couldnt cancel

and 3 i couldnt play covers

the first 2 i really didnt care about but the cover thing ruined my set cuz i really wanted to play the songs and now im afried i wont have enough music for 20-30 mins...

so i guess what im asking is if a single bassest takes a rock song and arranges it for bass can i do that in a club?
 
sure you can--he must mean you can't at this particular club
ok...i got a gig playing solo at this club around here its a christan club and its not that big of a place. one of my friends has a band that is playing there this Sat. and he talked to the owner and she said i could play too. and i thought yeah i could do this i have like 4 solo bass peices and 2 covers. well i went up to my friend later that night and asked him what was going to happen next week and he told me 3 things.

1. i wasnt getting paid to do it because the owner had to hear me first

2. i couldnt cancel

and 3 i couldnt play covers

the first 2 i really didnt care about but the cover thing ruined my set cuz i really wanted to play the songs and now im afried i wont have enough music for 20-30 mins...

so i guess what im asking is if a single bassest takes a rock song and arranges it for bass can i do that in a club?
 
Every establishment that has live music has to pay for a license that allows covers to be played in that place. This particular owner probably doesn't have one, and doesn't want to get sued for breaking copyright laws.

Your only option at that point is to get that ASCAP license yourself, which is a smart thing to do to cover yourself anyway.