First Paying Gig

You have to consider the type of punters that were there and what they were there for. For that type of event I would expect people to be there to socialise more than to dance. As soon as they get a few of those cheap drinks in them, they may have a dance but thats not the aim of the game. They were theatre students too so maybe the “club scene” isn’t really their thing. It also sounds like more of a bar with a dancefloor as opposed to a club. People go to bars to socialise and clubs to dance.
Sometimes you just get a tough crowd too…it may not have mattered what you played, you may have got the same reaction. Don’t beat yourself up over it. I’ve been there before but you just do your thing, enjoy yourself and hopefully people will feed off your energy…if not then just get some ladies dancing and it seems to take everything up 10 fold, as you’ve seen. I know DJs that will scope out a group of girls and buy them a round of drinks in return for hitting the dancefloor, to get things moving faster.
Don’t let that night discourage you!