diff --git a/src/database.js b/src/database.js
index 64bd35cbf..00b76bac0 100644
--- a/src/database.js
+++ b/src/database.js
@@ -61,8 +61,9 @@ async function initialize() {
         // note the pool also has an 'acquire' event but that is called whenever we do a getConnection()
         connection.on('error', (error) => debug(`Connection ${connection.threadId} error: ${error.message} ${error.code}`));
 
-        connection.query('USE ' + gDatabase.name);
+        connection.query(`USE ${gDatabase.name}`);
         connection.query('SET SESSION sql_mode = \'strict_all_tables\'');
+        connection.query('SET SESSION group_concat_max_len = 65536'); // GROUP_CONCAT has only 1024 default
     });
 }