NEWPORT — For more than 30 years, Los Lobos has been one of the greatest rock bands in America, mixing roots-rock bona fides with a Latino accent, and an experimental streak with a sense of songcraft that hasn’t let them down yet.

Unfortunately, Friday night at the Nantucket Nectars Sunset Music Series, only some of their talents were on display.

Bugged by sound problems, especially in the early going, the band was hard to listen to at times. David Hidalgo’s and Cesar Rojas’ guitars were loud and similar-sounding and covered up their vocals; throw in an overly powerful saxophone from Steve Berlin and there were some rough moments.

At first, this wasn’t a problem. During the opener, the demonic, heavy shuffle “Manny’s Bones,” from 1996’s Colossal Head record, the blaring guitars made everything all right, as they did on the rumbling train rhythm of “Shakin’ Shakin’ Shakes.” But on “Short Side of Nothing,” the clangor overwhelmed Hidalgo’s voice, one of the finest in rock — gentle and earnest without being fussy.

It went like that for the rest of the night. There weren’t a lot of chances for nuance, and that meant that songs such as “Maricela,” a Spanish-language song sung by Rojas, didn’t form much of a contrast with the rock-oriented material, and Louie Perez’s jarana (a small acoustic guitar that he strummed with a percussive, flamenco-style bite) was mostly inaudible. And the jams and long guitar solos, such as on “Chains of Love,” began to run together into a bit of a mess.

As the set went on, that became less of a problem — whether it was the natural flow of the set list or the band made adjustments, I couldn’t say. But the Ritchie Valens cover “Come On Let’s Go” — a song which, with Hidalgo’s plaintive voice leading the way, the band now owns — was a turning point, and after the sinister shuffle “Don’t Worry Baby” it was uphill from there.

The party continued through the encores, with the no-duh “I Got Loaded” and “La Bamba” (the latter of which was sped up to fit a whole version of “Good Lovin’ ” in the middle) joined by a snarling version of Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl.”

The Rhode Island Latin band Santa Mamba opened the show, and while Los Lobos is a rock band with Latin touches, Santa Mamba is a Latin band that has rock touches. These local mainstays covered a variety of Latin-music bases strongly, with the emotional voice of Gio leading the way.

rmassimo@projo.com