"R30 Overture" is the opening salvo of Rush songs of the R30 concert. It consists of a medley of shortened instrumental versions of six songs, with each song taken sequentially from Rush's first six albums.

1) "Finding My Way" - The opening song on Rush's debut album "Rush." The album was recorded at Eastern Sound Studios & Toronto Sound Studios, Toronto, Canada from March–November 15, 1973 and released on March 1, 1974. This first release shows much of the hard rock sound typical of many of the popular rock bands emerging earlier in the decade. Original drummer John Rutsey performed all drum parts on the album, but was unable to go on extended tours because of complications with his diabetes and so he retired from the band after the album was released. Rutsey contributed to the album's lyrics, but never submitted the work to the other members of the band. The lyrics were instead entirely composed by vocalist/bassist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson. Rutsey was soon replaced by Neil Peart, who remained the band's drummer as well as its primary lyricist.

2) "Anthem" - The opening song on Rush's second studio album "Fly By Night." The album was recorded at Toronto Sound Studios, Toronto, Canada in December 1974 and released on February 15, 1975. It was the first Rush album to showcase elements of progressive rock for which the band has become known. It was also the first to feature lyricist and drummer Neil Peart. "Anthem" features a heavier sound with more complex arrangements than previous Rush tracks. Peart named the track and its lyrics after the same-titled dystopian novella by Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand, who would become a greater inspiration to lyrics on their later album 2112.

3) "Bastille Day" - The opening song on Rush's third studio album "Caress of Steel." The album was recorded from July–August 1975 at Toronto Sound Studios, Toronto, Canada from July–August 1975 and released on September 24, 1975. "Bastille Day" displays the band's Led Zeppelin influence and concerns the the storming of the Bastille, which began the French Revolution, as an allegory for revolutionary fervor needed in the struggle against tyrannical government.

4) "A Passage to Bangkok" - The second song on Rush's fourth album "2112." The album was recorded in February 1976 at Toronto Sound Studios, Toronto, Canada and released on April 1, 1976 (or March 1976, according to some sources, including a review from Creem). The song's lyrics, written by drummer Neil Peart, are widely interpreted as describing drug tourism, specifically cannabis. The lyrics employ innuendo, eschewing naming any actual drugs. Lifeson said: "This piece is about a fun little journey to all the good places you could go to have a puff. We thought it would be kind of fun to write a song about that, and Neil did it in a very eloquent way, I think. That song was probably written in a farmhouse, on an acoustic guitar, in front of a little cassette player of some sort. We would record like that and then go down in the basement and rehearse it."

5) "Cygnus X-1" - The sixth song on Rush's fifth album "A Farewell to Kings". The album was recorded in June 1977 at Rockfield Studios in Wales and released on September 1, 1977. The song is a ten-minute science-fiction song in four distinct sections. The story takes place in outer space traveling to the center of a black hole named Cygnus X-1, where the character decides to take a closer look in his spaceship, the Rocinante. Peart was inspired by an article about black holes and their origin in Time magazine and went about researching the topic further. The song's arrangement was almost entirely devised by the time Rush had moved into Rockfield Studios. Lee thought that the science-fiction genre presented limitless ideas which gave the band the excuse to "use all your goofy, weird sounds because that's what’s happening out in space." In the tourbook for A Farewell to Kings, Peart wrote that the group had already decided to conclude the story on their next album, which became Hemispheres.

6) "Hemispheres" - The first song song Rush's sixth album and sequel to "Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage" on A Farewell to Kings. The album was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire and Trident Studios in London in June and July 1978 & was released on October 29, 1978. The song has six distinct parts & occupies the entire 1st side of the album. Book I concerns the journey of the Rocinante, a spaceship that enters a black hole in outer space. The sequel, like Book I, uses mythology and symbolism to depict a conflict between the gods Apollo and Dionysus, which is resolved when Cygnus intervenes, claiming a balance of heart and mind are what is needed for humans to live well. Peart introduced the gong and timpani to his percussion set for the first time; he hadn't thought of adding the instrument on previous albums but thought Hemispheres needed it.

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