In a few paragraphs, using DeVotchka’s aurally satisfying set at Bitterzoet a few nights ago as an example, I shall prove how useless genres are in modern music. Bands classified as ‘indie’, whatever the hell that means today, encompass almost every nook and cranny on the music sphere, from Beirut’s Balkanized urbanity to Calexico’s Mariachi twang. Genres, pigeonholing and categorising, especially with globalisation blending everything together, is utterly useless. And examples of this are endless. I could waste time and words listing many of them…

Yet, no other band encompasses this stylistic hodgepodge, this throw everything in the same soup pot and call it indie ethos, than DeVotchka. Brilliant musicians, enticing songwriters and clever arrangers they are, but a pop and/or rock band they are not. Instead, the overfilled Bitterzoet gets something else. This is everything but rock. In an hour, they utilize violin, accordion, mandolin, tuba, trumpet and upright bass alongside guitar and drums that spit sounds and ideas that cut through styles so sharply that residue remains. Inventive, symphonic and choral it is, but constrained to one or two specific styles. Instead, this is everything and nothing; simply music; the best there is.

How It Ends, their brilliant new album, one filled with more indigenous folk rumblings and risky melodic adventures than their older material, dominates the show from start to finish. Again, sweat accompanies the melodies inside Bitterzoet. Air conditioning must be illegal in Holland, as no venue has it and the humidity in here borders on the unbearable. Plus, there are a ton of Americans out tonight. Everywhere inside English is spoken as if Dutch has disappeared. This is uncommon – believe it or not – at Amsterdam concerts but, again, DeVotchka has stature across the pond because of their Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack, and remain relatively unknown in the Netherlands.

Thankfully, each stylistic oeuvre DeVotchka stab at, from sundry art-pop to raucous gypsy soul, is resoundingly effective – this is innately transforming discomfort into musical bliss with each note. Two songs in and I’m in love with this genre-free stew. To begin, the title track stops every conversation in mid-sentence. Possibly due to the influx of Americans, a talkative crowd is in tonight (usually the Dutch are silent and respectful). During this song, however, everyone shuts up. Silence emerges, welcome respect. Arresting violin lines merge with art-pop, classy piano and military drums. The audience is still quiet, enraptured in these songs. Styles are irrelevant. They are proving this. It is just that good.

‘Charlotte Mittenacht’ makes bedfellows of polka and opera, while ‘The Enemies Guns’ converses with Mexican Mariachi and Cowboy Swing before nestling into some sort of rock-tinged Tuba torque. I cannot keep track. ‘Curse Your Little Heart’ emerges, a pensive war cry swiftly followed by ‘Dearly Departed’, obviously placed as the dirge needed to mourn those lost at battle. Definitely all over the place but, simultaneously, exactly where is should be.

Now I know I’ve proved my point. Keeping up with DeVotchka is tough; it’s music freeing itself of the genre bind, even if the word ‘indie’ is still being used to categorize this tearing down of stylistic borders. DeVotchka is a prime example; odd instruments, odd arrangements and a bevy of styles, but it fits. Everything fits.