Language/framework to analyze or categorize capture results?

I am attempting to analyze capture results obtained from running a single application once using HTTP Ajax polling (comet) and once using Websockets. I would like to determine the difference in overhead between the two (so things like HTTP headers or resending requests, handshakes, etc.).

What would be the best way to approach this? I was thinking that using a scripting language with a framework that understands the libpcap format (such as Python/scapy). I would perfer something a little hacky rather than something with a huge learning curve.