diff --git a/src/bin/pg_upgrade/t/007_multixact_conversion.pl b/src/bin/pg_upgrade/t/007_multixact_conversion.pl
index fe8da9aded2..14133eb3c7a 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_upgrade/t/007_multixact_conversion.pl
+++ b/src/bin/pg_upgrade/t/007_multixact_conversion.pl
@@ -68,8 +68,8 @@ sub mxact_workload
 		# versions.
 		my $conn = $binnode->background_psql('',
 			connstr => $node->connstr('postgres'));
-		$conn->query_safe("SET enable_seqscan=off");
-		$conn->query_safe("BEGIN");
+		$conn->query_safe("SET enable_seqscan=off", 0);
+		$conn->query_safe("BEGIN", 0);
 
 		push(@connections, $conn);
 	}
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ sub mxact_workload
 			  ) as x
 			];
 		}
-		$conn->query_safe($sql);
+		$conn->query_safe($sql, 0);
 	}
 
 	for my $conn (@connections)
diff --git a/src/test/perl/PostgreSQL/Test/BackgroundPsql.pm b/src/test/perl/PostgreSQL/Test/BackgroundPsql.pm
index 60bbd5dd445..9d62c7a00c0 100644
--- a/src/test/perl/PostgreSQL/Test/BackgroundPsql.pm
+++ b/src/test/perl/PostgreSQL/Test/BackgroundPsql.pm
@@ -228,20 +228,24 @@ sub reconnect_and_clear
 
 Executes a query in the current session and returns the output in scalar
 context and (output, error) in list context where error is 1 in case there
-was output generated on stderr when executing the query.
+was output generated on stderr when executing the query. If C<verbose> is
+true (default) the query and its results are printed to the test output.
 
 =cut
 
 sub query
 {
-	my ($self, $query) = @_;
+	my ($self, $query, $verbose) = @_;
 	my $ret;
 	my $output;
 	my $query_cnt = $self->{query_cnt}++;
 
+	# Set $verbose to true if not passed
+	$verbose = 1 unless defined($verbose);
+
 	local $Test::Builder::Level = $Test::Builder::Level + 1;
 
-	note "issuing query $query_cnt via background psql: $query";
+	note "issuing query $query_cnt via background psql: $query" unless !$verbose;
 
 	$self->{timeout}->start() if (defined($self->{query_timer_restart}));
 
@@ -280,7 +284,7 @@ sub query
 	  explain {
 		stdout => $self->{stdout},
 		stderr => $self->{stderr},
-	  };
+	  } unless !$verbose;
 
 	# Remove banner from stdout and stderr, our caller doesn't care.  The
 	# first newline is optional, as there would not be one if consuming an
@@ -308,9 +312,9 @@ Query failure is determined by it producing output on stderr.
 
 sub query_safe
 {
-	my ($self, $query) = @_;
+	my ($self, $query, $verbose) = @_;
 
-	my $ret = $self->query($query);
+	my $ret = $self->query($query, $verbose);
 
 	if ($self->{stderr} ne "")
 	{