diff --git a/agent/grpc-internal/balancer/custombalancer.go b/agent/grpc-internal/balancer/custombalancer.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d689f14b5d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/agent/grpc-internal/balancer/custombalancer.go
@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+package balancer
+
+import (
+	"google.golang.org/grpc/balancer"
+	"google.golang.org/grpc/connectivity"
+	"google.golang.org/grpc/grpclog"
+	"google.golang.org/grpc/resolver"
+)
+
+func init() {
+	balancer.Register(newCustomPickfirstBuilder())
+}
+
+// CustomBalancerName is the name of the modified pick_first balancer.
+const CustomBalancerName = "pick_first_custom"
+
+var logger = grpclog.Component("balancer")
+
+func newCustomPickfirstBuilder() balancer.Builder {
+	return &customPickfirstBuilder{}
+}
+
+type customPickfirstBuilder struct{}
+
+func (*customPickfirstBuilder) Build(cc balancer.ClientConn, opt balancer.BuildOptions) balancer.Balancer {
+	return &customPickfirstBalancer{
+		pickfirstBalancer: pickfirstBalancer{cc: cc},
+	}
+}
+
+func (*customPickfirstBuilder) Name() string {
+	return CustomBalancerName
+}
+
+type customPickfirstBalancer struct {
+	pickfirstBalancer
+
+	activeAddr resolver.Address
+}
+
+func (b *customPickfirstBalancer) UpdateClientConnState(state balancer.ClientConnState) error {
+	for _, a := range state.ResolverState.Addresses {
+		// This hack preserves an existing behavior in our client-side
+		// load balancing where if the first address in a shuffled list
+		// of addresses matched the currently connected address, it would
+		// be an effective no-op.
+		if a.Equal(b.activeAddr) {
+			return nil
+		}
+
+		// Attempt to make a new SubConn with a single address so we can
+		// track a successful connection explicitly. If we were to pass
+		// a list of addresses, we cannot assume the first address was
+		// successful and there is no way to extract the connected address.
+		sc, err := b.cc.NewSubConn([]resolver.Address{a}, balancer.NewSubConnOptions{})
+		if err != nil {
+			logger.Warningf("balancer.customPickfirstBalancer: failed to create new SubConn: %v", err)
+			continue
+		}
+
+		if b.subConn != nil {
+			b.cc.RemoveSubConn(b.subConn)
+		}
+
+		// Copy-pasted from pickfirstBalancer.UpdateClientConnState.
+		{
+			b.subConn = sc
+			b.state = connectivity.Idle
+			b.cc.UpdateState(balancer.State{
+				ConnectivityState: connectivity.Idle,
+				Picker:            &picker{result: balancer.PickResult{SubConn: b.subConn}},
+			})
+			b.subConn.Connect()
+		}
+
+		b.activeAddr = a
+
+		// We now have a new subConn with one address.
+		// Break the loop and call UpdateClientConnState
+		// with the full set of addresses.
+		break
+	}
+
+	// This will load the full set of addresses but leave the
+	// newly created subConn alone.
+	return b.pickfirstBalancer.UpdateClientConnState(state)
+}
+
+func init() {
+	balancer.Register(newCustomPickfirstBuilder())
+}
diff --git a/agent/grpc-internal/balancer/balancer.go b/agent/grpc-internal/balancer/pickfirst.go
similarity index 90%
rename from agent/grpc-internal/balancer/balancer.go
rename to agent/grpc-internal/balancer/pickfirst.go
index a477a3e2de..82f18337c0 100644
--- a/agent/grpc-internal/balancer/balancer.go
+++ b/agent/grpc-internal/balancer/pickfirst.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
  */
 
 // NOTICE: This file is a derivative of grpc's grpc/pickfirst.go implementation.
+// It is preserved as-is with the init() removed for easier updating.
 
 package balancer
 
@@ -26,15 +27,12 @@ import (
 
 	"google.golang.org/grpc/balancer"
 	"google.golang.org/grpc/connectivity"
-	"google.golang.org/grpc/grpclog"
 )
 
-// CustomBalancerName is the name of the modified pick_first balancer.
-const CustomBalancerName = "pick_first_custom"
+// PickFirstBalancerName is the name of the pick_first balancer.
+const PickFirstBalancerName = "pick_first"
 
-var logger = grpclog.Component("balancer")
-
-func newPickFirstBuilder() balancer.Builder {
+func newPickfirstBuilder() balancer.Builder {
 	return &pickfirstBuilder{}
 }
 
@@ -45,7 +43,7 @@ func (*pickfirstBuilder) Build(cc balancer.ClientConn, opt balancer.BuildOptions
 }
 
 func (*pickfirstBuilder) Name() string {
-	return CustomBalancerName
+	return PickFirstBalancerName
 }
 
 type pickfirstBalancer struct {
@@ -77,14 +75,19 @@ func (b *pickfirstBalancer) UpdateClientConnState(state balancer.ClientConnState
 	if len(state.ResolverState.Addresses) == 0 {
 		// The resolver reported an empty address list. Treat it like an error by
 		// calling b.ResolverError.
+		if b.subConn != nil {
+			// Remove the old subConn. All addresses were removed, so it is no longer
+			// valid.
+			b.cc.RemoveSubConn(b.subConn)
+			b.subConn = nil
+		}
 		b.ResolverError(errors.New("produced zero addresses"))
 		return balancer.ErrBadResolverState
 	}
 
-	// Unlike the pick_first balancer, always tear down existing subConn
 	if b.subConn != nil {
-		b.cc.RemoveSubConn(b.subConn)
-		b.subConn = nil
+		b.cc.UpdateAddresses(b.subConn, state.ResolverState.Addresses)
+		return nil
 	}
 
 	subConn, err := b.cc.NewSubConn(state.ResolverState.Addresses, balancer.NewSubConnOptions{})
@@ -177,7 +180,3 @@ func (i *idlePicker) Pick(balancer.PickInfo) (balancer.PickResult, error) {
 	i.subConn.Connect()
 	return balancer.PickResult{}, balancer.ErrNoSubConnAvailable
 }
-
-func init() {
-	balancer.Register(newPickFirstBuilder())
-}
diff --git a/agent/grpc-internal/client.go b/agent/grpc-internal/client.go
index c7c8b08a9d..9a1e8402a7 100644
--- a/agent/grpc-internal/client.go
+++ b/agent/grpc-internal/client.go
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ func (c *ClientConnPool) dial(datacenter string, serverType string) (*grpc.Clien
 		grpc.WithContextDialer(c.dialer),
 		grpc.WithDisableRetry(),
 		grpc.WithStatsHandler(agentmiddleware.NewStatsHandler(metrics.Default(), metricsLabels)),
-		grpc.WithDefaultServiceConfig(`{"loadBalancingPolicy":"custom"}`),
+		grpc.WithDefaultServiceConfig(`{"loadBalancingPolicy":"pick_first_custom"}`),
 		// Keep alive parameters are based on the same default ones we used for
 		// Yamux. These are somewhat arbitrary but we did observe in scale testing
 		// that the gRPC defaults (servers send keepalives only every 2 hours,