diff --git a/pkg/workload/tpcc/tpcc_multi_db.go b/pkg/workload/tpcc/tpcc_multi_db.go
index 9518168c6b7e..894061be98e1 100644
--- a/pkg/workload/tpcc/tpcc_multi_db.go
+++ b/pkg/workload/tpcc/tpcc_multi_db.go
@@ -37,9 +37,10 @@ type tpccMultiDB struct {
 
 	// dbListFile contains the list of databases that tpcc schema will be
 	// created on and have the workload executed on.
-	dbListFile string
-	dbList     []*tree.ObjectNamePrefix
-	dbNames    map[string]struct{}
+	dbListFile   string
+	dbListForDDL []*tree.ObjectNamePrefix
+	dbListForDML []*tree.ObjectNamePrefix
+	dbNames      map[string]struct{}
 
 	adminUrlStr string
 	adminUrls   []string
@@ -257,13 +258,13 @@ func (t *tpccMultiDB) runBeforeEachTxn(ctx context.Context, tx pgx.Tx) error {
 	// in a roundrobin manner.
 	nextIdx := t.nextDatabase.Add(1)
 	targetDb := "tpccmultidb"
-	if t.dbList != nil {
-		databaseIdx := int(nextIdx % uint64(len(t.dbList)))
-		targetDb = t.dbList[databaseIdx].Catalog()
-		if _, err := tx.Exec(ctx, "USE $1", t.dbList[databaseIdx].Catalog()); err != nil {
+	if t.dbListForDML != nil {
+		databaseIdx := int(nextIdx % uint64(len(t.dbListForDML)))
+		targetDb = t.dbListForDML[databaseIdx].Catalog()
+		if _, err := tx.Exec(ctx, "USE $1", t.dbListForDML[databaseIdx].Catalog()); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
-		if _, err := tx.Exec(ctx, fmt.Sprintf("SET search_path = %s", t.dbList[databaseIdx].Schema())); err != nil {
+		if _, err := tx.Exec(ctx, fmt.Sprintf("SET search_path = %s", t.dbListForDML[databaseIdx].Schema())); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
 	}
@@ -298,16 +299,16 @@ func (t *tpccMultiDB) Ops(
 // Tables implements the Generator interface.
 func (t *tpccMultiDB) Tables() []workload.Table {
 	existingTables := t.tpcc.Tables()
-	if len(t.dbList) == 0 {
+	if len(t.dbListForDDL) == 0 {
 		return existingTables
 	}
 	// Take the normal TPCC tables and make a copy for each
 	// database in the list.
-	tablesPerDb := make([]workload.Table, 0, len(existingTables)*len(t.dbList))
+	tablesPerDb := make([]workload.Table, 0, len(existingTables)*len(t.dbListForDDL))
 	// We are going to order the list such that we are working on different
 	// databases in a round-robin fashion.
 	for _, tbl := range existingTables {
-		for _, db := range t.dbList {
+		for _, db := range t.dbListForDDL {
 			tbl.ObjectPrefix = db
 			tablesPerDb = append(tablesPerDb, tbl)
 		}
@@ -321,7 +322,8 @@ func (t *tpccMultiDB) runInit() error {
 	var err error
 	t.initLogic.Do(func() {
 		if t.dbListFile != "" {
-			file, err := os.ReadFile(t.dbListFile)
+			var file []byte
+			file, err = os.ReadFile(t.dbListFile)
 			if err != nil {
 				return
 			}
@@ -332,6 +334,7 @@ func (t *tpccMultiDB) runInit() error {
 			// First, sort the prefixes by database name.
 			dbToBucket := make(map[string]int)
 			t.dbNames = make(map[string]struct{})
+			t.dbListForDML = make([]*tree.ObjectNamePrefix, 0, len(strDbList))
 			var dbNameListBuckets [][]*tree.ObjectNamePrefix
 			maxBucketLen := 0
 			for _, dbAndSchema := range strDbList {
@@ -354,17 +357,22 @@ func (t *tpccMultiDB) runInit() error {
 				bucket := dbToBucket[parts[0]]
 				dbNameListBuckets[bucket] = append(dbNameListBuckets[bucket], prefix)
 				maxBucketLen = max(maxBucketLen, len(dbNameListBuckets[bucket]))
+				t.dbListForDML = append(t.dbListForDML, prefix)
 			}
-			// Next, generate the dbList slice by doing a round-robin across the
+			if len(t.dbListForDML) == 0 {
+				err = errors.Newf("db-list-file specified but no databases found")
+				return
+			}
+			// Next, generate the dbListForDDL slice by doing a round-robin across the
 			// databases in the map. This minimizes deadlocks by ensuring we are
 			// concurrently working on separate databases.
-			t.dbList = make([]*tree.ObjectNamePrefix, 0, len(strDbList))
+			t.dbListForDDL = make([]*tree.ObjectNamePrefix, 0, len(strDbList))
 			for range maxBucketLen {
 				for idx := range dbNameListBuckets {
 					if len(dbNameListBuckets[idx]) == 0 {
 						continue
 					}
-					t.dbList = append(t.dbList, dbNameListBuckets[idx][0])
+					t.dbListForDDL = append(t.dbListForDDL, dbNameListBuckets[idx][0])
 					dbNameListBuckets[idx] = dbNameListBuckets[idx][1:]
 				}
 			}
@@ -379,7 +387,8 @@ func (t *tpccMultiDB) runInit() error {
 			t.adminUrls = strings.Split(t.adminUrlStr, ",")
 		}
 		if t.consoleAPICommandFile != "" {
-			file, err := os.ReadFile(t.consoleAPICommandFile)
+			var file []byte
+			file, err = os.ReadFile(t.consoleAPICommandFile)
 			if err != nil {
 				return
 			}
@@ -421,7 +430,7 @@ func (t *tpccMultiDB) Hooks() workload.Hooks {
 			return err
 		}
 		// Create all of the databases that was specified in the list.
-		for _, dbName := range t.dbList {
+		for _, dbName := range t.dbListForDDL {
 			if _, err := tx.Exec(fmt.Sprintf("CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS %s", dbName.Catalog())); err != nil {
 				return err
 			}
@@ -460,7 +469,7 @@ func (t *tpccMultiDB) Hooks() workload.Hooks {
 	hooks.PostLoad = func(ctx context.Context, db *gosql.DB) error {
 		grp := ctxgroup.WithContext(ctx)
 		postLoadConcurrency := quotapool.NewIntPool("post-load-pool", 8)
-		for _, dbName := range t.dbList {
+		for _, dbName := range t.dbListForDDL {
 			alloc, err := postLoadConcurrency.Acquire(ctx, 1)
 			if err != nil {
 				return err