I'm aware there's a way to do this (which I am struggling to set up), but even if I get that to work, hibernate will print each parameter in its own line with bind parameter yada yada. Why can't hibernate simply print out the string that it is sending directly to the database?

As I explained in this article, Hibernate can do that just fine.

You only have to add a TRACE logger for org.hibernate.type.descriptor.sql package.

However, if you want to do it like a pro, then you should use datasource-proxy or p6spy. This way, you can even detect N+1 query issues automatically. Cool, right?

Thanks, that gives me something to chew on for sure.